Point Blank
by maymayB
Summary: Vegeta disappeared ten years ago, leaving Bulma in a very expensive Prom dress and broken hearted. What will she do when her high school sweetheart shows up all of the sudden for their ten year high school reunion? Where did he go? What has be been doing for the past ten years? And why is he being so secretive? A/U and maybe a touch of OOC.
1. Chapter 1

**Hi! I know, I know. Why in the bloody hell am I starting another fic, when I have a the ending of Book 1 of Destiny Lost to finish and Book 2 to develop... But I was watching one of my favorite movies (I'll let you guys guess what it is) and thought _"Hey, this plot would make a fantastic V/B_ _fic_" So I thought I'd give it a go. It'll be loosely based on the movie (again, ya'll can guess what it is). But will probably develop into something else as the fic continues.**

**And yes, this is a Bulma and Vegeta fic... don't let this chapter fool you!**

**This fic will have adult type themes, and as always cussing. C'mon, it's a fic with Vegeta... cussing is mandatory... **

**Warning: Although, I try to keep my characters in character, they may or may be OOC. This is an A/U. Vegeta isn't a Saiyan, but he's just as much of a bad ass in this fic. Since there is a warning, I don't want to hear any complaints. =) Coppice?  **

**Disclaimer: I do not own DBZ or it's characters.**

**Enjoy...**

Vegeta looked at his watch.

3:15

Three minutes until he clocked into work... sort of. He sighed heavily and cracked his neck. This whole scene was getting old. He needed change... a fresh start maybe.

He placed his elbows on his bent knees and scanned the ritzy hotel suite he had been staying in for the past five days. Even staying in rich hotels, such as this one was getting to be dull. It was just as exciting as laying in a man made ditch, which he has had to do on many occasions. He shook his head. Same thing, different city.

Vegeta remembered when this job was everything to him... fun, exciting... He loved it. What happened?

He glanced at his watch again.

3:16

With a heavy frown he lifted his high powered rifle, making sure the silencer was on, then made sure it was loaded and ready. He lifted off of the floor and aimed outside of the open window, all the while making sure to stay camouflaged in the darkness of the room. He looked through the scope onto the street, waiting for 3:17 to hit.

Like clockwork, a very large man in an expensive tailored suite, sauntered out of the five star restaurant that was directly across street from where Vegeta was. The large man was followed by two goons, who were the man's bodyguards. They too were dressed nicely, and Vegeta chuckled to himself that in just a few seconds, they wouldn't be looking too nice.

The large man's name was Vinny Constenzo. He was a major crime boss, who just got off on five counts of murder... and it wasn't the first time. The prosecutor's had rock solid evidence, but he got off, scott free. Probably because Vinny had his people tamper with the jury.

_Typical asshole, who thought he was above everyone else, just because he ran a crime family and had lots and lots of money_.

These were the jobs Vegeta loved to take. Silently ridding the world of scum like Vinny. _Ok, maybe the job has it's rewards..._

Vegeta squeezed off the first shot, hitting Vinny directly in the chest. The fat man didn't even know what hit him. And before good ol' Vinny hit the cement, so did his two bodyguards.

He shook his head in disapproval. The two so-called bodyguards didn't even have enough time to pull their guns out before he shot the two directly in the chest, just like Vinny.

He made quick work as he expertly dismantled his rifle and put the pieces in the designated, form fitting foam in a medium sized black hard case.

Just as he finished his phone vibrated. He clicked the button of his earbuds, that doubled as a headset.

"Yes?" He growled.

"Sir, is the job complete?" The familiar voice said in a calm, nonchalant tone.

"Yes." Vegeta punched the 'down' button to the elevator. "Has the money been transferred to my account?"

"Yes." Said the voice. "One point six million dollars."

Vegeta's scowl lost some of it's sharpness at the sound of the amount. _That's probably why I haven't quit this yet_. He mused jokingly to himself. "I'm coming in."

"Yes, sir. I'll be sure to leave your next assignment on your desk."

Vegeta ended the call. He didn't want to think about work right now. He just wanted to catch his flight home and go to sleep. Thinking of the next contract made him feel even more tired than he was.

* * *

He paused at the door to his office. He didn't want to go in. It would be the same ol' thing waiting for him on his desk; a dossier, with some person's whole life on a few sheets of paper, including what that person did to piss off the 'powers that be' aka: the government.

Vegeta tried to think back to when he started to lose the thrill of the kill. The excitement about taking a sick asshole off of the street.

He tightened his expensive black tie and reached for the knob and opened the door. He peeked in, making sure he didn't have any unexpected guest, once he felt it was ok, he entered his large private office.

A large red envelope laid in the center of his desk, as well as one or two regular sized envelopes. He sat down and just stared down at items and thought of the question he had just asked himself. Maybe it was Paraguay that did him in. The job was particularly dirty... in more ways than one. He had to spend three hours in the sewer to escape the president of the country's henchmen. They didn't take too kindly to find Vegeta, covered his blood, standing over their recently killed leader with a large serrated knife sticking out of his neck. Things didn't go as planned on that job...

With a heavy sigh, which he was doing a lot of lately, he pushed the red envelope aside and picked up the small white envelope addressed to him.

He ripped the envelope open and pulled out a thick card stock piece of paper, and did a double take and read it out loud;

**Class of 2111. Can you believe it's been 10 years? It's class reunion time! Come reminisce with your fellow West City Panthers Saturday July 7th.**

He looked at his watch. It was July 5th.

"PFFT." He hissed mockingly. "No way in hell am I going back to that fucking place." He tossed the invite into the trash bin, his mind involuntarily wandered back to June of 2111. His face twisted as he pushed the memories of _her_ back down to where they came from and grabbed the red envelope, ripping it open.

This was a run of the mill hit. Although, it didn't go into detail as to why this particular person deserved to be killed. He shrugged his shoulders. Whatever, he'd do it. The offer was a decent amount, a cool three million dollars. Not bad.

He continued to read over the person's background. At first the information didn't click. But as he read on, his left eye twitched and a headache started to form at the base of his neck.

"Fuck me." His gravely voice reverberated off of the walls.

He stuffed the papers back into the envelope and swiped the card stock out of the trash bin.

If this wasn't dumb luck, he didn't know what it was.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello everyone! Here is Chapter 2. I hope you all enjoy it. I tried to give you all a bit of a back story as to what happened to Vegeta. But of course as the fic progresses, there will be more flashback scenes that shed some light as to why Vegeta vanished. **

**Thank you for the fantastic feedback! And for those of you who guessed Grosse Point Blank as the movie reference, you guessed correct! If you haven't seen the movie, I strongly recommend it. It's awesome.**

**So, my dear readers, I would like some feeback about this chapter. I'm not too sure that I like it. I spend a couple nights thinking about this particular segment and honestly, I don't care for it. But I felt it was necessary for story and character building. Please tell me if I am still holding your interest after reading this chapter.**

**During the high school flashbacks, both Bulma and Vegeta are 16. Present day Bulma and Vegeta are 26.**

**This is un-beta'd. I read through it, but... if you are familiar with my writing, there is bound to be one or two mistakes. (Please see authors note at the end of this chapter)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own DBZ or it's characters.**

**10 years earlier... **

Bulma sat in the salon chair, practically bouncing with excitement.

"How do you like it?" The hair dresser asked. She handed Bulma a hand held mirror so she could look at the back of her head.

The blue haired teenager practically squealed with delight. "It's just like the picture!" She turned her head to the right and left. Her long beautiful hair was braided off to the side in a fishtail braid. It trailed over her left shoulder and ended above her hip. It was simple, but sophisticated. The hair dresser even sprayed her hair with glitter spray to add a little something extra.

Bulma handed her a hundred dollar bill and told her to keep the change. She gathered her bags, filled with last minute prom shopping and exited the salon. She continued down the familiar street that held most of the small shops and restaurants of West City, mentally checking off things that needed to be done before tonight.

She was on cloud nine. She had been planning this day out since kindergarten... that and her wedding day. She had the perfect dress, her hair was perfect, her make up was done professionally and to top it off she had the most handsome date ever.

She smiled at the thought of Vegeta. They had been dating for a year and a half now, and was certain that she was going to spend the rest of her life with him. Her mom said that everyone felt that way about their high school boyfriends and girlfriends, but Bulma felt otherwise. This wasn't some silly hormone driven relationship. No, what she and Vegeta shared was deeper than that. The chemistry between them was frightening.

In the midst of her daydreaming, she managed to run into something that felt like the equivalent of a brick wall. Dazed, she looked up and was met by with steely black eyes and a familiar scowling face.

"Vegeta!" She said, surprised and stood up on her tip toes. He bent down, meeting her half way and kissed her on the lips.

He smirked as he straightened. He made her blush. He loved it when she did that. Still not saying anything, he took the bags out of her hands and motioned for her to continue walking down the street.

They walked hand in hand for a few moments in silence until Bulma couldn't take it anymore.

"What happened this time?" She lifted her head to look at his profile. His scowl deepened and he let go of her hand. She could always tell when something was bothering him.

He shook his head and sighed. But didn't say anything.

Bulma furrowed her brows at him and stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, as did Vegeta. She reached up and grasped each side of his face, and lightly ran her thumbs over his tanned cheeks.

He looked down at her. She knew him all too well... sometimes too well for his liking.

He sighed again. "I just came from picking my dad up." He gave her a stony stare and gently took her hands off of his face with his free hand.

"Again?" She frowned. She knew it. Vegeta Sr. was almost always the cause of his problems.

Vegeta nodded, and again ushered her down the road towards her home.

"I'm sorry." She said sadly. "Where is he?"

Vegeta's looked at her, confused.

"Your dad, you said you went to go get him."

Vegeta rolled his eyes. "I called him a taxi. There was no way in hell I was going to drive him home. I knew he'd still be drunk, so I walked to the police station, bailed him out and sent him home. That's when I saw you." He smiled slightly at her and lightly tugged on her fishtail braid.

Bulma returned the smile and squeezed his hand. But much to Bulma's dismay, Vegeta remained silent for the rest of the walk to her home. Something was off. Sure her boyfriend of a year and a half was quiet. But he usually would participate in conversation with her. He seemed... distracted.

He walked her up to her porch and handed her, her shopping bags.

"So, you'll be here at 6 to pick me up and then we will meet Goku and Chi Chi at the restaurant at 6:30."

Vegeta nodded, again not saying anything.

"Are you sure you're ok?"

Vegeta looked at her, his ever present scowl on his face. "Yes, I'm fine. I think I'm going to take a nap before I pick you up. See you then." He turned around and headed down Bulma's driveway.

* * *

6:31 pm

Bulma stood on her porch. Her stelletto'd foot tapping impatiently as she looked at her cell phone again.

She pressed the redial button. It went straight to voicemail.

Vegeta's gravely voice filled the speaker.

**"You've reached Vegeta. Unless you're Bulma or my mother, don't bother leaving a message..."**

_**BEEP**_

"Vegeta, where are you? You're thirty minutes late! I hope you didn't sleep in! I'm calling your mom." She hung the phone up and dialed Vegeta's home phone and prayed that his mom answered and not his father.

"Hello?" _Thank god it was his mother._

"Hi Mrs. Ouji. Umm, is Vegeta there? He was supposed to be here to pick me up, but he hasn't showed."

There was a slight pause. "I'm sorry Bulma. I haven't seen him for a couple of hours now. He and his father got in an argument again and he stormed out of the house."

"Oh... Ok. Well, I guess let me know if you hear from him." Bulma said. Her throat tightening from fighting the urge to cry.

"Ok, dear."

Bulma hung the phone up and dialed Vegeta's cell again.

"**You've reached Vegeta. Unless**-"

She ended the call.

Once 7:30 rolled around, she went back inside. Ignoring the concerned looks that her parents were giving her, she climbed the stairs and went to her room and laid down on her bed. She couldn't contain the tears anymore. She curled up into the fetal position and cried herself to sleep...

**Present Day**.

Bulma stared at the beautiful, barely worn, red prom dress. It hung in the back of her walk in closet in a see through plastic garment bag. Every once in a while, while digging for something to wear, she'd catch sight of it. And as always, the memories of prom filled her head.

She glared at the gown. She often wondered why she hadn't donated it or given it to somebody. But deep down she knew she couldn't give it up. She forcefully sent it down the hangar rail and commenced her search for a shirt.

She grabbed a simple pink tee and slipped on some jeans and some tennis shoes. She glanced back at the full length mirror and shrugged at her reflection. She looked decent enough to go out in to public.

Bulma went over to her vanity and sprayed on some perfume and looked at the card stock that she stuck on the edge of the mirror.

She still wasn't sure if she was going to go to the reunion... although she was sure she'd be suckered into going by Chi Chi. Bulma rolled her eyes at the thought and grabbed her purse.

Following her daily routine, she headed to the coffee shop that Chi Chi had taken over just five years ago. Beautiful morning's such as this one, Bulma opted to walk. Is was a short distance away and parking was incredibly hard to find in the older part of town that she lived in.

She waved at the familiar faces she passed on the street, cheerily throwing 'Hello's' and 'Good Mornings' to ones that greeted her... totally oblivious to the jet black Challenger that was following her down the street.

* * *

Vegeta got into West City at 5am. He opted to drive his own car rather than fly. It allowed time to think, get his shit in order... and plan this cluster fuck of a hit out.

As he went down Rosewood Drive, he couldn't help but think about the last time he was on this street; He stood out in front of the yellow house behind the cover of some bushes, and watched _her_ from a distance. He watched her get angry at him, but anger turned into worry and then into heartbreak. When she gave up on him and went back into the house, that was when he left town...

He parked across from the familiar yellow house and waited. As he did so, he went over the file again. The clients wanted the job done ASAP, not giving an explanation as to why. Which, he was used to. Why should they tell him? His job was to kill, not ask questions. He did, however, look up public records that pertained to Bulma.

Currently, she was single. She was married when she was twenty to a Yamcha Jackson. But the marriage was annulled just six months into it. She is second in command at Capsule Corp and moved into her parent home when they moved to East City five years ago. She had good credit and paid her bills on time. That was all that he could find on her.

Karma must have been coming back to bite him on the ass.

Vegeta put his ear buds in and phoned his office.

"Sir."

Vegeta tossed the file onto the passenger seat. "I need you to do some digging for me."

"Regarding?" The familiar voice asked.

"Regarding the job I've been assigned. I find it very hard to believe that I was sent to kill my ex-girlfriend from high school a mere coincidence. I want to know what she did to piss the clients off, and if possible, why I was selected for the job."

There was a pause on the other side, which made Vegeta smirk. It was a rare feat that he could stump his assistant. She almost always had something to say. "..Um... I will dig up the requested information for you." She let out a dry chuckle.

Vegeta quirked an eyebrow up. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing Sir... I just find it amusing that you had a high school sweetheart."

"Why is that amusing?" Vegeta huffed.

"I pegged you as a lone wolf type, Sir."

Vegeta pinched the bridge of his nose. "Just get me the god damned information, Eighteen."

"Yes Sir."

Vegeta hung the phone up. "Women." He growled. He looked at his watch and then back up to the house and froze.

There she was, and she hadn't changed a bit. Her hair was a touch longer, as it flowed down her back in a pony tail. And her smile was bright and beautiful as always and if it were possible, she was more curvy and sexy than before.

His steely black eyes followed her form as she walked down the driveway and towards town. Vegeta tried hard to push away the tingle he always felt in his stomach every time he saw her. He was an elite assassin, not some love struck boy. But the tingles grew, much to his dismay.

He waited a few moments, letting her gain some distance between him before he started his car and rolled down the street, following her.

* * *

The coffee shop was busier than usual. Bulma had to almost elbow her way to the counter to sit next to her friend and his son.

Bulma ruffled the hair of the nine year old boy, who was eating a jelly filled donut.

"Hey kid!" Gohan looked up and gave her a donut filled smile. "Goku, what's shakin'?" She looked to the tall man sitting next to the boy.

Goku, who was trying to stuff two jelly filled donuts in his face paused and waved.

"You know, you should be careful, you don't want to ruin your uniform." Bulma giggled as she leaned up against the counter.

Goku swallowed and dusted powdered sugar off of his nicely pressed police uniform. "Thanks, Bulma. Chi Chi would kill me if I got it dirty, she just cleaned and pressed it for me." He smiled brightly at his old friend and continued to eat his donuts.

"Oh! Bulma!" Chi Chi delighted when she caught site of her. "Business has doubled! Everybody is coming into town for the reunion!"

Bulma looked around, noticing now some of the familiar faces from back in the day. She craned her neck to look through the crowd, hoping to see one particular face...

"Here you go." Chi Chi handed her, her usual coffee order and went back to helping her customers.

"You going tomorrow night?" Goku asked, as he wiped the jelly off of his chin.

"Meh, I don't want to." Bulma shrugged, taking a sip of her coffee.

"You're going Bulma Briefs!" Chi Chi hollered from down the counter.

Bulma rolled her eyes and then looked to Goku. Chi Chi's husband gave her a sympathetic smile. "Well, I'm off to drop Gohan off at school." He tapped his son on the shoulder signaling him to follow.

"I should go too." Bulma turned to Chi Chi to say good bye, but she was too busy filling an order. She followed Goku and Gohan out of the coffee shop.

"Have a good day, kid." Bulma mussed Gohan's hair again.

"You too Bulma!" Gohan chirped as he got into his fathers police cruiser.

Bulma looked back to her ever-smiling friend. "Umm, Goku... you have a glob of jelly on your badge."

Goku looked down. "Woo." He bent his head down and pulled his badge up to his face and licked it off. "Thanks!" He smoothed his uniform shirt with both his hands and looked up at Bulma. "Don't let Chi Chi bully you into going to the reunion if you don't want to. Personally, I think you should go, but it's your choice."

Bulma's eyebrow perked as she looked at her oldest friend from the rim of her paper coffee cup and swallowed the mouthful of coffee. "Oh? Why's that?"

Goku shrugged as he walked to the drivers side door of his cruiser. "Maybe he'll be there." He gave her a small smile and got into his car.

She stood there, looking at the police cruiser as it drove off. She wanted to laugh at what Goku said. There was no way in hell Vegeta would come back, out of the blue, just to go to their ten year high school reunion of all things.

Bulma began her walk towards Capusle Corp. As she did, she continued her thoughts about Vegeta and the sheer silliness of the whole thing. Vegeta was well known throughout West City High. He held the record for getting in fights. And not one of them were started by him. He was intelligent and stood up for the little guy. And he didn't do it to be cool or accepted, that was just how he was. He didn't pine to be in the cool kids clique. In fact, he loathed most of the people he went to school with, with the exception of her. He tolerated Goku and the other guys they all hung out with.

She knew damn well that he could care less what people were up to now...that is if he was still alive.

People had their theories and guesses as to what happened to Vegeta Ouji. Some say he was having an affair with some chick in the neighboring town and they ran off to get married, which Bulma knew was untrue. Some people said he was kidnapped. That theory was probable... but unlikely. Another rumor was that he just plain ran away, which is what Bulma believed to be true. But what plagued her for years was; Why?

Vegeta may have had a rough home life, but he had a lot of things going for him. He had a full-ride scholarship for college, he had his friends and of course her. They had spent countless nights talking about their future together. The two of them even made it so they went to the same college together and found a cheap apartment to move into after they graduated high school.

The question still nibbled at the back of her head... what happened to Vegeta Ouji?

* * *

Vegeta parked his black charger as close as he could to the little coffee shop. Figuring Bulma would be in there for a few minutes, he decided to look around the familiar streets of his home town. He put on a pair of sunglasses and a hat. He wasn't ready to be recognized yet, and it seemed that half of his graduating class were on Main Street, reminiscing like he was. He got out of his car and started walking.

Besides a couple of new shops, nothing had changed on Main Street. He snorted when he walked to the corner of the street, seeing West City Bowling Ally. The old ally hadn't changed much. The only thing new about it was the new neon sign that was in the window. Vegeta looked inside the window, cupping both hands on each side of his face to see the inside of the building better. It still had the beat up faded green seats and red carpet and the ancient bowling lanes that looked to be dated back to when his parents were kids. He shook his head and headed back to his car.

Memories of he, Bulma, Goku and Chi Chi popped into his mind. They spent every Friday at that damned ally. And every time, he'd wipe the floor with them. Nobody beat him at a game of bowling. He smirked at the thought.

Looking at his watch, he decided to walk back to his car. Bulma had been out of his sight for five minutes now.

As he approached his car, he absently took his hat off. The damn thing itched. He wasn't one for wearing hats, his thick hair made it uncomfortable and it made his scalp sweat.

He ran a hand through his thick, flamed shaped mane and regretted taking his hat off immediately as he felt someone stop behind him.

"Oh. My. God. Vegeta?" Came a voice from behind.

_Fuuuck._

He slowly turned to find Krillin, one of the guys that considered himself one of Vegeta's friends back in the day. Where he got that idea, he wasn't sure.

"It is you! Holy crap! Man," He looked Vegeta up and down. "You haven't changed a bit!" He gave Vegeta a large dopey smile. It made him want to smack it right off of his face.

Vegeta crossed his arms over his chest and looked down at the short man. "Yes, and I see you shrank even more."

Krillin let out a hardy laugh. "You haven't lost that great sense of humor!" He walked up and patted him on the shoulder.

Vegeta suppressed the urge to growl at the short man.

"So, what have you been up to? Where did you go?"

Vegeta furrowed his brow. He usually was more prepared than this, he always had an answer for everything. But, seeing as this particular job had sent him for a loop mentally, he hadn't thought about preparing a cover for himself.

He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "I've been working private security."

Krillin nodded his head thoughtfully. "Private security huh? Well, it suites you. I always knew you'd be in some sort of profession that entailed kicking peoples asses." He smiled brightly at him again. He paused for a moment, waiting for Vegeta to elaborate, but he just stood there... scowling down at him. "Well, I've got to get going, see you at the reunion!" Krillin waved good bye and continued walking down the street.

Vegeta pinched the bridge of his nose. His cover was blown, that midget was bound to blab to someone that he was back in town. And knowing this town, the news would spread like wild fire.

Putting his hat back on, he turned and leaned against the top of his car, placing his crossed arms on the roof and rested his chin atop of his arms. He could still see flashes of blue from inside of the coffee shop through the windows.

He watched as Bulma exited the shop, following a tall police officer and a little boy. Vegeta snorted when he realized the cop was Goku.

_'Of all people to be carrying a gun...' _He shook his head.

Vegeta got into his car and continued to watch her say her good byes to the two of them. Before he started his engine, he glanced down at his phone. Still no word from Eighteen. With an annoyed growl he threw his car into gear and sped off towards Capsule Corp.

* * *

She hadn't been in her office for more than twenty minutes before she was paged by the front office.

Bulma stuffed her pen in her pony tail and grabbed the phone on her desk.

"Yes?" She asked as she grabbed a packet of papers and flipped through it.

"Ms. Briefs, you have a visitor."

She gripped the phone between her shoulder and head as she tossed the packet back on her desk and reached for a folder next to her. "Who is it?"

"Um, he didn't give me his name and he doesn't have an appointment, but he said you'd see him anyway."

Bulma scrunched her nose up... what was up with all the secrecy? "Does he look like a crazy person? Because if he is, I'm not coming down there..."

"Oh no, no! He's quite the opposite. Very hansom. He's got the tall, dark and mysterious thing going on."

Bulma tossed the folder back onto her desk. "Alright. I'll be right down." She grabbed her coffee and headed to the main lobby.

When she entered the large open space, she quickly scanned the area for anyone that she might know that was there to see her. It was a high traffic area, there were men and women coming and going. Not recognizing anyone in particular she went to her assistant's desk.

"Hey Lucy. Where's my mystery guest?"

Lucy gave her a smile and pointed to someone behind her. Bulma gave her a confused look and slowly turned around.

The first thing she saw was a very expensive black suit, black dress shirt and black tie. Moving her eyes upward she was met with a pair of black steely eyes and the familiar scowl of Vegeta Ouji.

**One more Authors Note...**

**For those who are reading my other B/V fic (and this one...) I am starting to update my profile, letting you all know what fic I am currently working on and when I anticipate on updating chapters. I don't like leaving my readers hangin', wondering when I will be updating. =) **

**_Also_, I do have a beta, but I don't want to bog her down with two fics... would anyone like to beta this fic for me? **


	3. Chapter 3

**A special thanks to WithoutWingsX, who graciously volunteered to beta this fic! Thank you, thank you, thank you!**

**This chapter isn't as long as I wanted it to be, but as my awesome beta wisely said: It's not the length that matters, it's the content. =)**

**Thank you to all my reviewers! Again, I certainly hope I'm keeping you guys interested. I'm having so much fun writing this fic, it's a nice break from DL. Speaking of... (for those of you who are waiting for DL Book 2, Chapter 1 is almost complete =) **

* * *

Bulma's eyes grew wide and gasped loudly. In her surprised state, she dropped her coffee cup.

"Umm, Ms. Briefs. Should I call security?"

Vegeta looked over to Bulma's assistant. "That wouldn't be a good idea." He then looked down at his chest, where Bulma was poking him. He arched an eyebrow at her.

"You.." She poked him again. "You're alive..."

Vegeta gently grasped her offending finger and gently let go. "Yes. I'm not dead...yet." He mumbled the last part.

"...you're here." She whispered. A large smile slowly growing on her previously surprised face.

Vegeta's scowl morphed into a small smile too and braced himself as Bulma launched herself onto him, wrapping both arms around his thick, muscled neck and attacked his lips. Vegeta couldn't help but chuckle as he was hit with a barrage of kisses on his lips, cheeks, forehead and jaw.

Lucy, who was watching the odd exchange, released the handle of her desk phone and smiled at the two. She was about to call security until her boss started to kiss this Mr. Mysterious.

Bulma let go of Vegeta and promptly slapped him in the face.

"What the hell, Woman!" He rubbed his cheek, looking down at the blue haired woman.

"That's for abandoning me on prom night!"

Vegeta gave her an annoyed look. He couldn't blame her though. It was a dick move. He nodded his head slightly and absently tightened his black silk tie.

The two of them remained silent for a moment; they just stood there staring at one another. Each reveling in the fact that they were face to face with the person they didn't ever think they'd see again.

Bulma was the first to break the silence. "Are you back for the reunion?"

Vegeta cleared his throat and rolled his eyes slightly. "Yes."

Bulma nodded her head. "Do you want to go get some coffee, maybe catch up?"

"No."

Bulma flinched. "Um... ok."

Vegeta shook his head, seeing the hurt on Bulma's face. "What I meant to say was, I don't have time right now. I actually came here to ask you to dinner."

Bulma un-furrowed her brows and smiled. "Oh" she said, relieved. "Sure. Want to pick me up at six... my parent's old house. You remember where that is, right?"

"Yes, I remember." _Because I was stalking you earlier_. "Six it is."

"Great." She narrowed her eyes at him. "You are going to show up this time, right?"

Vegeta rolled his eyes. "Yes, I will actually show up."

"Well," She tugged on his expensive black tie. "I'll believe it when I see it, mister." She winked at him and turned to walk back to her office.

Vegeta watched her walk away, not noticing the small smile that graced his lips. He waited until she disappeared behind the large double doors and then exited the lobby of Capsule Corp and went to his car.

Again, before starting the engine, he checked his phone again. Still no call or message from Eighteen. He slammed the car into gear and sped out of his parking spot, headed back down Main Street.

It wasn't that he didn't want to go to coffee with Bulma. He really did, he wanted to be close to her, talk with her, just be near her... plus coffee sounded really good.

"Bah!"

No. In actuality, he wanted to give Eighteen more time to get back to him. The only reason why he came to see her was because of the bald midget. He didn't her to hear through the grape vine he was back. Plus, if Eighteen did get back to him, telling him that this whole this was a coincidence, Bulma is actually some mad scientist who is hell bent on destroying the world and that's why she has a hit on her head, then he'd off her at her home...

But all of the above would be too easy. Vegeta shook his head and exhaled heavily. In the five minutes of being in the same room with Bulma, he knew that nothing had changed about her. She was still caring, still quick witted, smart, pure, and still had feelings for him. Although that last part didn't have anything to do with the hit. It did however throw a huge wrench in this particular job.

Vegeta turned off of Main and onto Chance Avenue. Much like Main Street, the houses hadn't changed much, other than some updated paint on a few of them. When Chance Avenue ended, he turned right onto Lily Way and stopped dead in the road.

He shoved his glasses off of his face, as it were the reason for what he was seeing. There, just three houses down on the left, sat all that was left of his childhood home. Burnt to the ground, only singed wood and the concrete foundation remained.

* * *

**Ten Years Ago...**

After walking Bulma home, he headed home himself. He purposely took the long way, knowing what would be waiting for him when he got there. As he rounded the corner onto his street, he caught site of his mother, sitting on the porch of their home. Her face in her hands, obviously crying.

Vegeta's shoulders sagged.

_God damnit._

He jogged up to his mom, doing the usual mental check list as he looked at her.

Bleeding? No, not this time. Broken bones? Doesn't look like it. Bruises? Non that he could see...

Vegeta's father was a drunk. And even though he was a major asshole he never laid a hand on his son and wife. Instead of hurting his family with fists, he hurt them mentally. But it didn't stop Vegeta from running over the checklist every time he came home and saw his mother in the state she was in now.

The teenager bent down and helped his mom up. No words were exchanged, what was there to say? There was a time when Vegeta begged, threatened and pleaded with his mother to just pack up and leave. But no matter how many times he asked, she would refuse. Telling him that no matter what his father put her through, she still loved him. And, if it weren't for his mother, he would be long gone. But if he left, there would be nobody left to defend and take some of the heat off of her.

He guided his mother into her bedroom, making sure his father wasn't in there and closed the door behind him. He knew before he walked to the window in the hallway, that his father was outside.

Sure enough, he saw his father in the backyard through the window. Sitting on a lawn chair with a cooler full of beer.

With a heavy sigh, Vegeta climbed the stairs to his bedroom. Making sure the door was shut tight behind him, he fell onto his bed. The only thing keeping him sane nowadays was Bulma. But the more and more they talked of their future; college, living together... even marriage made him nervous.

Not that he didn't want to spend his future with Bulma. But, lately, he felt that his life was going down a separate path than what he and Bulma were planning.

He wasn't sure what he wanted to do with his future... He did however felt the ever growing feeling of... darkness, for lack of a better word, build up inside of him.

Last month, during career week at school, he visited the Army booth. He struck up conversation with the officers there, and deep down, that was what he wanted to do. It was the danger that allured him...

Vegeta turned his head and looked at the rented tux that was hanging on the back of his closed door. He stared at it and didn't flinched when the tux was knocked off of the hook it was on as the door swung open.

Vegeta Sr. stood in the doorway, beer in hand, and a sneer on his lips.

The younger of the two, inhaled through his nose and got up off of his bed.

"Boy, there's money missing out of my wallet." He swaggered in drunkenly. "You dare steal from me?

Vegeta scrunched his face in anger. "I took the money out of your wallet to bail you out of jail, old man."

His father glared at him, clenching and unclenching his jaw. "Who said you could take that money? It was mine! Not yours, not even that sorry excuse of a woman you call your mother."

Vegeta straightened and tightening his fists at his sides. "Would you have rather me just leave you in the drunk tank? Because trust me, I would have rather done so."

Vegeta Sr. took a threatening step towards his son, his lip curling upwards in frustration. His son didn't falter at his attempt of intimidation.

"You think you're better than me, is that it, boy?" He took a swig out of the brown bottle of alcohol and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "It's only a matter of time before you screw up your life, and I'll be right there when you do. Whether it be you fucking up at college or knocking up that blue haired whore of yours-"

That did it.

It was like something snapped in Vegeta's head. He lunged at his father, easily knocking the drunken man down. The teenager swiped the beer bottle out of his father's hands and broke it on the edge of his desk. With one hand he gripped the older man by the neck and brought his face down to his. With his other hand, he brought the broken bottle up to his father's cheek, threateningly.

"Listen here you drunken fuck. Just because you're a waste of space, poor excuse of a husband and father, who has royally fucked his life up, doesn't mean I will follow in your footsteps. Get your act together, stop treating mom like shit and be a man!" He let go of his father's neck and stoop up. Vegeta grabbed his wallet and car keys. "And don't you ever call my girlfriend a whore again." He threw the bottle at the wall, shattering it.

He stepped over his father, who still had a look of shock on his face, and stomped out of the house and into his car.

He'd never been so shaken up... or felt so invigorated in his life. He drove for a couple hours, trying to cool off and found himself parked outside of Bulma's home.

Sitting in the drivers seat, he watched Bulma's form bounce back and forth in the large bay window of her bedroom, getting ready for prom. Even from afar, her beautiful smile and eyes shone brightly.

Bulma. She meant the world to him. And this is why he had to leave... especially after what he almost did to his father. He couldn't subject her to the darkness within him.

Vegeta exited his car and hid in the large bushes outside of Bulma's home. He watched as she exited her house and stood on the porch. She was breathtakingly beautiful. It was making it very hard for Vegeta not to burst out of the bushes and tell her his plans. But he knew if he did so, she'd talk him out of it.

He could tell she was frustrated by the way she tapped her foot and kept looking at her cell phone.

He sat out there until she gave up on him and went back inside, then went back to his car... and drove to the Army Recruitment Center in the neighboring town.

* * *

**Present Day...**

Shoving his ear-buds in his ears, he hit speed dial.

"Sir."

"Eighteen, what the fuck happened to my house?" He outstretched his arms to the pile of rubble that used to be his childhood home, as if she could see what he was talking about.

"Sir?"

Vegeta pinched the bridge of his nose and tightly closed his eyes. "My home, in which I spent my childhood in."

"Give me a moment sir." Eighteen drawled. Vegeta could hear the rapid tapping of her keyboard. "It's burnt down, Sir."

"No shit Sherlock. How?"

More tapping could be heard. "The cause was undetermined. There were no casualties."

Vegeta grunted. "Can you run a search for Vegeta Ouji Senior and Cheree Ouji?"

"Sir. One moment."

Vegeta paced as he impatiently waited.

"Vegeta Ouji Senior lives in West City Apartments. Apartment number five." Eighteen cleared her throat, uncomfortably. "Cheree Ouji, died five years ago and is buried at West Lawn Cemetery in West City. My condolences, Sir."

He was dumbstruck. His mother had died, and he didn't even know. He shook his head. "Whatever." He mumbled.

"As for getting information you requested earlier, I'm still gathering information. I will contact you as soon as possible."

"Fine." He hung up.

* * *

Bulma twirled around in front of the floor length mirror. She had spent an hour picking out her outfit. A short black flowy skirt and a baby blue tank. She fluffed her long hair, opting to let it down. She tried to tell herself it was because the look complimented what she wore and not because it was how Vegeta liked it back in the day.

She jumped when the doorbell sounded.

Bulma half walked half jogged to the front door, glancing at the clock before opening it.

5:55pm.

She opened the door and for the second time today, her heart fluttered and the familiar butterflies flittered in her stomach.

"You're early." She smirked playfully as she took in the sight in front of her.

Vegeta stood on her doorstep, in the same outfit he was in earlier that made him look like some sort of secret agent.

He scowled as he looked down at his watch. "Would you rather me wait out here for the five minutes?"

She rolled her blue eyes at him, moving to the side. "Come in, Jerk."

Vegeta smirked at his old pet name and came in. _Ah, memories._ He mused as he looked around the large home. The two of them threw many a party back in the day in this house. In that very entry way he now stood in, was when he beat Goku at doing a keg stand.

"Ready?" Bulma asked, coming from the living room. She slipped on a pair of flats and a sweater.

Vegeta grunted and opened the door for her, following her outside. He did a double take when she merely closed the door behind her and bounded off of the porch and headed towards his car.

"Aren't you going to lock your door?" He furrowed his brow at her.

"Oh!" She ran back up and locked the dead bolt. "Always forgetting to do that. It's a wonder I haven't been robbed." She smiled up at him and walked with him to his car.

"Wow, Vegeta. This is a nice car." Bulma let herself in and marveled at the all leather black on black interior. When Vegeta got in she couldn't help but laugh. "I see your favorite color hasn't changed."

He looked at her, confused. She chuckled again. "Black car, black clothes..." She furrowed her eyes at him. "Are you 007? Do you have license to kill and have a faithful secretary named Moneypenny?" She gave him a sly smile and laughed once more.

Vegeta couldn't help but let out a dry chuckle... How close she was to guessing his profession. He loosened his tie and then started the engine. Pulling out of Bulma's driveway, he looked up at the rear view mirror, as was his habit.

"Well?"

Vegeta looked over to Bulma. Her big cerulean eyes twinkled as she looked at him."Well what?"

"Am I to assume you're a James Bond wannabe, or are you going to tell me what you do for a living?"

Vegeta scowled at her. "I am not a James Bond wannabe." _James Bond wishes he was_ _me._ "I'm in private security." He gave her a sideways glance and then looked up at the rear view mirror again.

"Private security..." She said thoughtfully as she tapped her finger on her chin. "Well, it suits you."

"Hn." He grunted. "And you. I see you ended up at Capsule Corp. after all."

Bulma crossed her arms and looked out the window bitterly. "Yeah, well... things didn't go as planned."

Vegeta cringed. He walked right into that one. "No... I guess they didn't." He sighed inwardly and gave her another sideways look. She kept looking straight forward, arms still crossed.

They rode silently for the short ride to the restaurant. All the while, Vegeta keeping tabs on the vehicle that was tailing him.

This was going to be an interesting dinner...

* * *

**Beta'd by: WithoutWingsX**

If you all are looking for a great read, check out DBZer16's fics: **The Sea Girl** and **Trouble**. Both fics are fantastic Bulma and Vegeta A/U's. They are original and I just can't say enough wonderful things about both fics!


	4. Chapter 4

****Ok... stupid me, I had a total brain fart and for some reason thought Cui was part of the Ginyu Force. (Rolls eyes at own stupidity) So, I went back and replaced Cui with Burter. I do apologize if you read this and was like... "what the hell is maymayB doing?" Yeah...  
**

**Hi guys. Here's the next chapter for you. Again, lot's of info going on in this chapter (especially at the end). Please let me know if you have any questions. I do have to thank my husband, who is not a fanfic reader, he helped me come up with some of the plot detail as to why Vegeta is on this mission. **

**Thank you so much for your reviews! They keep me going! You all are kind and at times make me laugh with your awesome reviews. Honestly, you guys make my day! Thank you!**

**Also, Destiny Lost Book 2, Chapter One has been posted... just saying =)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own DBZ or it's Characters.**

* * *

Vegeta took his phone out of his pocket. He looked back up at the rear view mirror and quickly texted the license plate number of the car to Eighteen:

_**87TY8W. Who is he? And why is he tailing me?**_

Vegeta turned down Main Street and found a parking lot next to the restaurant he and Bulma used to go to all the time. As he got out, his phone buzzed.

_**Checking now, Sir. **_

Vegeta grunted, shoved his phone back into his pocket, and opened the door for Bulma. She gave him a slight smile as she looked at the building he parked next to.

She arched an eyebrow at him. "Luigi's?"

Vegeta nodded. "It's been a while since I've had a decent plate of pasta." He smirked at her and motioned for her to lead the way. As she stepped in front of him, heading towards the restaurant, Vegeta looked over his shoulder. The green mustang that had followed them from Bulma's house was now parked across the street. The unknown occupant still in the car.

The place was busy, but the two of them only had to wait five minutes to get a table.

As the hostess showed them to their table, Vegeta kept tabs on the mystery person in the green mustang through the large windows of the restaurant. So far, nobody had exited the vehicle.

Too distracted, he was unable to catch Bulma as she sat at chair that was facing the entrance. He mentally cursed and sat down, his back now facing the door.

He sat down, and instantly felt tense. He hated not being able to see who was coming in and who was coming out. He looked over his shoulder and grumbled under his breath.

Their waitress came scurrying up to them. The poor thing was frazzled, having to wait on a larger crowd than she was used to.

"Can I get some drinks started for you?" She said, trying to find a pen in her apron.

"I'll have a beer."

"Make that two." Vegeta said, again, looking over his shoulder.

The woman nodded and walked off to take another order.

"What's your deal?" Bulma asked, cocking her head to the side.

"Huh?" Vegeta said, still looking over his shoulder.

"You seem paranoid."

Vegeta turned back around. "I don't like having my back to the door."

Bulma looked at him, as if he was a crazy person. "Well," She stood up from her chair. "I'll switch you. If it'll make you stop acting like someone's out to get you." She walked over to Vegeta, who was giving her a look of annoyance. "Scoot!" She swatted at him playfully and smiled when he did as he was told.

He sat in his new chair, and felt at ease once his back was not facing the door.

Bulma shook her head at him.

The waitress dropped their drinks off, telling them she'd be back to get their order.

"So," Bulma grabbed the beer in front of her and took a sip. "Are you going to tell me what you've been up to now, or is it up to me to guess?"

Vegeta blankly stared at her, he too taking a large sip of beer.

"You're not going to make this easy on me, are you?" Bulma sighed.

"Nope." Vegeta deadpanned.

"Alright." Bulma drummed her fingers on the table top. "Are you married?"

He chuckled . "No."

"So that rules out the first rumor."

Vegeta quirked an eyebrow at her statement, but she continued her interrogation before he could ask what she meant. "Girlfriend, roommate, friends with benefits?"

"I am not romantically involved with anyone. I do not have a roommate, unless you count my goldfish. Friends with benefits? No." He smirked at her.

Bulma nodded, relieved. "Ok." She thought of the next question she was going to ask. What she really wanted to ask was where he went the night of prom... but knowing Vegeta, her best bet was to ease into it. "Tell me about your work."

Vegeta's left eye twitched. He took another gulp of beer. "I own my own company."

"Really? How many people work for you?" Bulma asked. She placed her elbows on the table, taking interest in what he had to say.

"It's only myself and my assistant."

Bulma waited, expecting for him to elaborate, but soon remembered who she was dealing with. As she opened her mouth to ask another question, Vegeta cut her off.

"You got married." His voice was calm, but had a twinge disappointment.

Bulma jerked back slightly in her chair. Not a lot of people knew about that part of her life. "Um, yeah."

"And?"

She tucked a piece of blue hair behind her ear. "I met him in college. It was a year or two after you left. He was persistent, asked me out for a year. Finally I said yes. We dated... and after a few months he asked me to marry him." She rolled her eyes and swirled the beer in the mug she was holding onto. She kept her eyes on the swirling liquid... this was not something she thought she would be telling her long lost love about. She sighed heavily and shrugged. "Not being happy at how things weren't going as planned...I said yes and after a few months I came to realize that he wasn't what I wanted." _He wasn't you._ She looked up at him. "So, I had the marriage annulled and moved back home."

Vegeta could see the hurt in her eyes. His decision to leave still affected her. In a sense he altered her life. Ever since he knew her, she already knew what she wanted to do with her life, a marine biologist. He had witnessed dozens of arguments between her and her father about her decision. Her father felt that she would be wasting her natural genius, and talent on such a dumb profession, and that she should come to work at his company and put her brain to good use.

"And that's why you are now second in command at Capsule Corp." It wasn't a question.

Bulma nodded. "I'm happy though... In a way."

Vegeta reached into his pocket, feeling his phone vibrate and took it out. "Excuse me." He mumbled as he opened the text from Eighteen.

_**Sir, car belongs to goon named Burter. He is one out of a team of five hit men from a competing firm. I am unable to find out why he is there. **_

Vegeta ground his teeth and stuffed his phone back into his pocket. He knew Burter. He was a total dick. But he also knew that if Burter was there, then his other four team members, known as the Ginyu Force, were close by as well. The five of them worked for Frieza Cold. He was a higher up in the military, who was rumored to be dirty... requesting hits that weren't sanctioned properly, getting rid of people who made his life and missions difficult for him. But he was good at covering up his tracks, making it impossible to pin the hit requests on him. Vegeta knew first hand that Frieza was bad news...

He scanned the busy restaurant, looking for the others.

Bulma narrowed her eyes at him, noticing that he was on edge. Vegeta looked back at her, dismissing the look of concern that she was giving him.

"Ohmigawd!"

Both Bulma and Vegeta turned their heads and simultaneously groaned. The tall, dark blue haired, big-boobed bimbo... also known as Maron stumbled to their table.

"Vegeta Ouji? Is it you? You're back! And look at you!" She sloppily took a sip of her martini, which was probably her third or fourth for the night. "I think you've gotten hotter!" The blue haired lady reached over and pinched Vegeta's cheek.

He batted her away, giving her a look of annoyance. Marron looked over to the other blue haired woman at the table.

"Oh. Hi Bulma." She sneered and looked back over to Vegeta.

Bulma rolled her eyes at the woman.

"So, what have you been up to? What do you do for a living, Vegeta?"

"I'm a door to door vacuum salesman." He deadpanned.

Maron stared at him wide eyed for a moment and then burst out laughing. "Oh Vegeta, you're so funny!" She caressed his bicep and winked at him. "Save a dance for me at the reunion." She gave Bulma a sideways glance and then blew a kiss at Vegeta. "Bye!"

The two of them watched her stumble back to the bar and shared a good laugh when Maron promptly fell on her ass while trying to climb back onto her bar stool.

The waitress took their orders and brought their food out, all the while the two engaged in small talk, conversing about how much their home town had changed as well as the people in it. Bulma filled him in on who got married, divorced, who was in jail and who got knocked up.

Vegeta rolled his eyes. "I didn't think Kakarot had it in him."

Bulma twirled her spaghetti onto her fork. "Yeah, well, the two of them apparently got really drunk the night of prom."

He scoffed. "Please, we got drunk plenty of times and we did it like stoned test bunnies, but I managed not to knock you up."

Bulma almost spit out the meatball she was currently chewing, trying to stifle a giggle. Vegeta smirked at her.

She swallowed her food. "True... those were the days."

Vegeta nodded slightly. "Yes, they were."

Bulma sighed and put her fork down. "I have your stuff."

"Come again?"

Bulma hesitated. She was regretting her sudden outburst. "A few weeks after you disappeared, your father packed your room up and tossed it onto the front yard. I got a phone call from your mom telling me to pick it up, because your father was threatening to set it on fire." She bit her lip nervously. She knew Vegeta Sr. was a touchy subject. "At that point, we weren't sure if you were going to come back, so Goku and I got your stuff and put it in my attack, just in case you ever did."

He ran a hand through his thick head of hair. When he left, the only thing he had on him was his wallet, keys and clothes on his back.

Bulma continued. "I think your mom knew that someday you'd come back, and she knew that I'd keep your things safe for you."

Vegeta nodded.

"Would you like to take it? I think there are ten boxes in total."

"I'll go through them, I'm sure half the stuff is trash anyway."

Vegeta looked at Bulma. He wanted to ask about his mother. How she died. But he couldn't bring himself to ask.

* * *

With dinner finished and paid for, Vegeta and Bulma walked outside, towards Vegeta's car.

The green mustang still sat across the way, Burter's figure sat patiently in the driver's seat, all the windows down in the vehicle. Vegeta could see his head turning, watching as he walked down the street to the parking lot. He almost flinched when he saw Burter pointing at Vegeta, forming his fingers to look like a gun and acted as if he pulled the trigger. His ugly smile after he did so made Vegeta want to pull the gun that was concealed on his hip out and shoot the ugly fucker in the face.

Vegeta quickly ushered Bulma to his car. As he grabbed his keys out of his pocket he intentionally dropped them on the concrete.

"Whoops." He said half heartedly said as he dropped to the concrete and looked underneath his car and the surrounding area, making sure Burter or the Ginyu force hadn't placed a bomb or tracking device on it.

Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, he swiped his keys off of the ground and stood back up. He unlocked the door, letting Bulma enter first as he lingered by his opened door, looking at Burter.

Vegeta gave him a stony glare and then got into his Challenger. He barely kept his eyes on the road as he continuously looked up at his rearview mirror, checking to see if Burter or anyone else was following.

They weren't.

Which made Vegeta even more suspicious.

They made it back to Bulma's, and he accepted her offer to come in, only to make sure there wasn't anyone waiting for her when she entered. He kept telling himself it was just because he wanted to make any one of the members of the Ginyu Force was waiting for her... trying to steal his job from him, seeing as the bounty on her pretty head was three million dollars.

His reasoning was only partially true... True, he didn't want her to fall victim to any of those idiots. And yes, he was still on the fence about the whole thing... Still waiting on Eighteen to tell him the full story as to why she had a price on her head... But spending time with her had only made the old feelings that he had buried deep inside of him start to sprout back up.

He stood in the doorway to the kitchen, doing a quick scan on the surrounding rooms, and watched as Bulma kicked her flats off of her feet and jumped up onto the kitchen counter.

"So... you gonna ask me to the reunion or what?"

Vegeta pushed off of the doorframe he was leaning up against, and took a step towards the counter she was atop of.

"Still the needy little woman, aren't you?" He scowled playfully.

Bulma smiled at him. "Needy? I don't think so. I think I deserve it... that and an explanation as to why you left me... and where you went, and why you never called, wrote, emailed..." She looked at him, her blue eyes drilling into his steely black ones.

"Now now, woman." He put his hands up semi defensively. "Let's not get a head of ourselves." He walked up next to her and leaned up against the counter. "How about I pick you up at five tomorrow."

"Umm, how about you come over around three. That way you can go through your stuff and then we go to the reunion from there. Deal?" She stuck her hand out.

He frowned at her hand, but took it any way, shaking it. "Deal."

"Maybe then you can explain yourself to me." Bulma gripped his hand tight attempting, feebly, to get her point across.

Vegeta looked down at their hands and then back up at her. "One thing at a time." He smirked at her. Their faces just inches from each others. "Good night."

Bulma let her hand linger on his. She knew she heard him say goodnight, but he wasn't making any movements to leave.

For a moment, it was as if they both were sucked back their high school days. Bulma, looking into his intense black eyes, which always made her weak at the knees. And, Vegeta getting lost in the depths of her cerulean iris's had him practically drooling to get a taste of her lips.

Throwing caution to the wind, Vegeta closed the small gap between them and crushed her lips against his. Bulma jumped slightly at the sudden attack on her lips but soon relaxed.

Unfortunately, as fast as the kiss happened, it ended. Vegeta back-pedaled a few steps away from her, his cheeks flushed.

"See you tomorrow." He quickly turned on his heel and all but ran out of the house and into his car, leaving Bulma wide eyed at what had just occurred.

Vegeta took off, back tires screeching as his car sped out of the driveway of Bulma's home and onto the steet.

* * *

Vegeta checked into his hotel room and promptly stashed various weapons all around the room. He then took a cold shower, trying to rid the thoughts of the blasted kiss he engaged with the woman.

When the cold shower was proving unsuccessful, he hoped out and slid a pair of loose fitting basketball short on, not bothering to dry off.

He sat cross legged on his bed and opened his laptop.

Eighteen, who had impeccable timing, sent a Skype request right as he logged onto his email.

Vegeta huffed, annoyed, and hit the accept button. "It's about damn time." He mumbled.

His assistants face came into view. The look of indifference and slight boredom graced her face as always as she greeted her boss.

"Sir, I've finally got the information you requested." Her eyes flickered to her boss's wet bare muscular chest and then brought her attention back to his annoyed face.

Vegeta crossed his arms and waiting for her to continue.

"It seems you were correct with your assumption. This hit was meant to make you squirm, in a sense. The hit request was sent from Frieza Cold." She paused, making sure her boss was following. "It seems that you've pissed him off."

"Yeah, no shit." He mumbled.

Three months ago, he had received a hit request. The client requested for the person in question to be killed ASAP, and that it didn't matter how they were killed either. The target's name was Marjory Clifton. She was the mistress to a wealthy business man who had friends in high places. Vegeta did his usual research on his target. Home address, place of work, daily routines, everything.

According to the dossier with Marjory's information, the wealthy business man, whose name Vegeta couldn't remember, had broken things off with Marjory. And, apparently Marjory wouldn't take no for an answer. The woman was stalking her ex lover, showing up at his daughters school, calling him at all hours of the night and even showed up at his door step, threatening to go public about their affair. When he refused to take her back, she then told him that she would leak confidential information to the media about the man's company.

According to the client, the news of the affair would be detrimental to the man's company, along with whatever the confidential information was that she had... Hence, the reason why Vegeta now held a red folder requesting her immediate disposal.

The only reason why Vegeta took the job was because of the threat of the man's little girl. He had his morals after all... if it weren't for the threat against the child, he would have tossed the request out the window.

When it came time to do his job, he found he was unable to follow through.

He now knew why she was stalking her ex lover... she was at least seven months pregnant.

After tailing her for a day or so, he found that she was dirt poor and expecting his baby. The second he found that she was pregnant, he dropped her like a bad habit and refused to acknowledge her and their child.

After digging a little deeper, he found that Marjory was her ex-lover's secretary and she surely had some major dirt on his company and its dealings with Frieza. Apparently Frieza had his dirty hands in arms dealing, in not just one country but numerous ones. Selling top of the line weapons to the enemy.

Vegeta killed many people of different shapes, sizes, nationalities and social status. But never has he killed a woman with child, and he wasn't planning on doing so either.

He returned to his office, telling Eighteen to relay the message that the mission was aborted and next time the client requests him to kill a pregnant woman in order to cover their own dirty tracks, they can go fuck themselves.

After a month, Vegeta received an unexpected visit from Frieza himself. He told him that he admired Vegeta for keeping his mouth shut about the information he found. Frieza then offered him a position on the Ginyu Force, telling him he'd get higher paying hits among other perks Vegeta could have given two shits about.

He declined. The only reason why he kept his mouth shut about his findings was because he didn't want to get involved. Especially with thinking about getting out of the business all together.

On top of all of that, Frieza's team were ruthless killers, not to mention the biggest bunch of asshole's, ever. They didn't care who the target was or if the target did anything wrong to be killed... no morals. And, Vegeta had more morals ironically.

Eighteen cleared her throat, seeing her boss was in deep thought.

Vegeta regained focus and nodded at her to continue.

"From what I gather, Frieza approached her to build him a weapon. When Ms. Briefs found out what his intentions were for said weapon, she halted all work on it."

"What's the weapon and what is he planning on doing with it?"

"Unknown at this time."

Vegeta huffed and told her to continue.

"I received word from his offices today, that if you kill Ms. Briefs, it means you are still loyal to your country and will continue to work for them."

"And if I refuse?"

"If you refuse, they will kill Ms. Briefs and you."

Vegeta rubbed his temples. What a fucking mess.

"Sir, we're in too deep, aren't we?"

He nodded. "Yes, Eighteen, yes we are. The asshole has already sent his men to shadow me... to make sure I complete the mission."

"You have time. They are giving you until Sunday to complete it."

Vegeta rubbed his chin. "Ok, that will give me some time to think. Until then, it's business as usual. I don't want them to think we are up to something. I'll call you when I've figured something out. But in the mean time, you may want to activate a few of the safe houses for me and for you as well."

Eighteen's eyes widened slightly, shining with excitement. She smirked. "Yes Sir." It had been a while since she'd seen some action.

"Don't get too excited, Eighteen."

Eighteen shook her head. "Of course not, Sir."

They signed off, Eighteen going right to work on her boss's request.

Vegeta on the other hand sat on his bed, his brain working a million miles a minute. The familiar dull ache of a migraine starting at the base of his skull.

He turned the lights off and lay back down, rubbing his eyes with the butts of his palms.

He needed to come up with a plan, fast. He was in deep, and wasn't sure what direction to go.

But one thing was for sure, Bulma Briefs was not going to die. He'd make sure of that.

* * *

beta'd by WithoutWingsX


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey guys! **

**Sorry for the delay. I've been sick and I had to get chapter 2 of DL out before I updated this fic.  
**

**This was unbeta'd, so please forgive me.**

**Just so you know, since this is an all human fic, I've decided to give the ginyu force certain characteristics. Like for instance, Burter has purple dyed hair... get it? Good.  
**

**Disclaimer: I dont own it. **

* * *

He had planned everything out. Go to the reunion tonight and first thing tomorrow he'd stage a fake hit, making the Ginyu Force believe he had taken care of Bulma. The only hard part was sneaking Bulma out of town unnoticed and of course, getting her to agree. But, he was prepared if she didn't. He'd simply knock her out and take her. Either way, she was coming with him.

Burter tailed him from the moment he left his hotel room before sunrise. First stop was to the twenty four hour diner at the edge of town... he even sat three booths down from Vegeta. He would look up every so often and give Burter a cocky smirk as he ate an omelet. Burter, in return would just stare back at him, in an intimidating fashion, but he clearly didn't know who he was dealing with. Vegeta was the king of intimidation, and his silly attempts only made Vegeta chuckle out loud at his feeble attempts.

He was then followed to the local Save-mart where Vegeta purchased one black t-shirt, a black hooded sweatshirt, a pair of blue jeans that seemed a few sizes too small for him, a black hat and two pay as you go phones. He also got a couple of bags of beef jerky, ho-ho's and a six pack of coke.

Next stop was to the cemetery.

Vegeta was somewhat relieved to see Burter staid in his car. At least he had a shred of decency, giving Vegeta some privacy with his mother.

He stood there awkwardly in front of the tombstone. What was he supposed to do? Cry? Pound his fists into the granite tombstone and scream up towards the heavens? No, that was a little too dramatic. He wasn't one for showing his feelings, especially when it came to things like this.

He looked around, noticing the colorful bouquets of flowers that lay by the other markers. With a quick glance over his shoulder to make sure nobody was watching, he swiped a large bouquet of irises from the grave closest to him and put them down onto his mother's.

"Probably going to hell for that..." He mumbled. "But, trust me Mom, I've done worse."

He stayed silent for a while, reading over the headstone's engraving:

**Cheree Lyn Ouji  
**

**Beloved Mother**

**...and Wife**.

Guilt washed over him. Guilt for leaving her with his father. Guilt for leaving her alone and for not being there when she had died, and not knowing that she had. He still was in the dark as to how she died (He'd ask Bulma.)

His mother was one of the kindest people he had ever known. She was the only person in the world, beside's Bulma and rarely Goku, that he would open up to. She had so much love for her son. She didn't deserve the life she lived, and didn't deserve him for a son. The son that left without a word...

Vegeta would religiously send his mother most of his monthly pay when he was in the army. Sending letters, urging her to take the money, leave, and start over anew... without his father. He should have known something had happened when his monthly envelope of money had been returned in the mail; no forward address available.

He sighed heavily. "I'm sorry Mom." Vegeta said softly. He patted his hand on top of the marble grave stone and turned away, towards his car. He wasn't one for sentiments... The main reason he had came there in the first place was to see for himself that she was dead and to pay his respects. Being there made him uncomfortable. It reminded him of death for obvious reasons... but more so about his own mortality.

Vegeta wasn't afraid of death, one of the many reasons why he was recruited by the government to become an assassin. But when the time came, who would come to his funeral, if he was lucky enough to have one? Would his father come? Would Bulma? His other so called friends?

Most of the guys that were in his profession died in the line of duty. Their bodies would be left behind (usually in the possession of the enemy), leaving their loved one's in the dark as to what happened to them. When they were finally declared dead, they would be honored with an empty grave. Would he be remembered by an empty grave? This is something that he often thought about, ever since he lost the love of the kill. It never bothered him, he had nothing to lose. Who cared if he died? But now... his perspectives were changing. Maybe he did care if he died, possibly because of his reconnection with his high school sweet heart? Maybe because he found a new found respect for life... he wasn't sure.

Shaking his head he looked down at his watch. It was almost three. He got into his car and headed to Bulma's house... and so did Burter.

xXxXxXxXx

Bulma set the last of Vegeta's boxes down in the middle of her large living room. There were ten boxes in total. She hadn't gone through the boxes, not even when she and Goku picked them up off of the Ouji's front yard. They went straight to her attic, and were never touched... until today.

She cheerily went to the kitchen to check on the cookies she had made and to get a couple of glasses out for she and Vegeta. She nearly dropped both glasses when she heard a voice from behind.

"You know, you really need to start locking your door, Woman."

She turned around to see Vegeta, in a similar black suite that he had on yesterday. He was smirking evilly at her, pleased that he had startled her. Maybe he could scare her into locking her blasted door.

"JERK!" She slapped him on the arm, but it only made his smirk widen. "Here." She shoved the glasses in his arms. "Fill these up with ice." She waved to the refrigerator and turned to take the cookies out of the oven.

Vegeta did what he was told and sniffed the wonderful aroma of chocolate chip cookies that filled the air. Mmm, his favorite. Nobody could make them to his liking... except for Bulma. Golden brown and chewy in the center.

"I'm serious, Bulma. You need to lock your doors. Some asshole could just walk in and have their way with you." He said sternly, setting the cups full of ice down on the counter.

"I know, I know. Goku bitches me out all the time about it. I just always forget... it's a wonder I haven't been robbed blind!" She gave him a smile as she finished piling the fresh baked cookies onto a large plate. "You mind bringing those cups? I already have a couple cans of coke out in the living room already. She picked up the plate, Vegeta grabbed the cups and they both entered the living room, taking a seat in the center of the plush carpet, where the boxes were located.

"Cookies and coke... brings back memories." Vegeta said, taking a bite out of a warm cookie. Oh how he'd miss this.

Bulma giggled. "I know. God! We'd spend hours talking ...and other things while eating chocolate chip cookies and Coke." She blushed.

Vegeta couldn't help but chuckle. Those were the days.

They both grabbed a box each and started sifting. The first boxes were full of old homework assignments, binders and papers of no importance. It went straight to the trash pile. Most of the other boxes were filled with clothes, including Vegeta's letterman jacket for football and baseball, sports jersey's and other garments. Saving only the jacket and his jersey's the rest went into a pile to go to good will.

They shared some laughs at the baggy jeans and 'skater wear' that Vegeta had worn back in the day.

"Please Woman. The clothing you wore during your high school career was just as bad, maybe even worse."

Bulma glared at him. "Yeah, 'Mr. I wear black suits everyday'. Like you have any fashion sense."

Vegeta furrowed his brows at her. "This is a fifteen hundred dollar suit."

She rolled her eyes at him, but not before giving him a suggestive smirk and went back to going through the box in front of her.

XxXxXxXxX

There was only one box left. Vegeta opened it up and hesitated.

"What?" Bulma asked.

He grabbed a pile of it's contents and spread it in front of him. A variety of pictures lay in front of them. Bulma and ChiChi had gone through a picture craze back in high school, taking photo's of everyone and everything.

She had surprised him on one of his birthdays. His mother had helped her make a collage using all of the pictures she had taken on one of his walls. Some of them were of their group of friends, some of them were of Vegeta while he played football and baseball. And, most them were of he and Bulma.

More than half of the photos now were tattered and ripped, probably from his father ripping them off of the wall in his drunken fury.

"Oh my gosh! I had forgotten all about these!" Bulma gasped as she grabbed a pile and started going through them.

Vegeta looked back in the box. A blue velvet jewelry box lay on the bottom. He narrowed his eyes at it, he remembered that box. It was his mother's. He pocketed it and stood.

"I'll be right back."

"Ok." Bulma said, not looking up from the photos.

Vegeta went to the bathroom and locked the door behind him. He leaned on the counter and took the small box out of his pocket and opened it. A small folded piece of paper was stuffed in it. He quickly unfolded it, his eyes grew large as he read it.

_Son,_

_A long time ago, your father gave this to me. Back when he was a good, loving man. He worked hard to pay for it and I wore it until the love between he and I ran out. I want you to have it. Give it to Bulma on Prom night. You two will have a wonderful life together, and hopefully it will bring you more luck and love than it did me and your father._

_Love, Mom._

Vegeta looked at the box and found his mothers engagement ring in it. It was silver and had a small diamond in the center, simple. He remembered his mother telling him that his father had worked for six months straight after school, his senior year, to pay for it.

He shook his head. His mother had wanted him to give it to Bulma the night of Prom... trying to guide his life down a path that consisted of love and happiness...instead, he left them all and went down the path of death and destruction.

He stuffed the box and the letter back in his pocket and went back to the living room.

Bulma was slipping on her flats and looked up at him "You ready to go?" she asked. "Vegeta, are you ok? You look upset." She walked up to him, lifting her hand to his cheek.

He gently batted her hand away, and ignored the last question. "Don't you want to clean the mess up first?"

She eyed him carefully, but knew when not to push. "Nope, I can take care of that later." She grinned up at him and dragged him towards the door. "It's reunion time!"

xXxXxXxXxXx

The gym was decorated with their school colors with yellow and orange crepe paper and balloons. The DJ was playing songs that were popular when they were in their senior year and most importantly, there was a free bar and buffet table right next to the dance floor.

The two of them picked up their name tags, which conveniently had their yearbook photos printed on them, as if it weren't torture enough. As they entered the abyss of people that Vegeta could give a rats ass about seeing again, he took comfort in knowing that his trusty Desert Eagle pistol was stashed securely in the back side of his pants, armed and ready. He wasn't planning on killing anyone tonight, but it being there acted more like a security blanket for the assassin.

"Bulma and Vegeta? Holy shit!"

_And it begins. _Vegeta mentally rolled his eyes at the approaching blue haired woman.

"Oh my gosh! Launch! How have you been?" Bulma exclaimed as she hugged her old school mate.

The two prattled on, losing Vegeta's interest instantly. He scanned the vicinity, looking for people that didn't belong there... like Burter for instance, that was in the southeast corner of the building, nursing a drink and watching Vegeta intently. Or Jeice, who was standing at the bar, trying to blend in, but was doing a horrid job at it. Honestly... the man had a horrid orange like tan and white hair. He stuck out like a sore thumb. At least his counterpart opted to hide his purple streaked hair under a baseball hat.

_How in the bloody hell did these guys get to be top ranked assassins? _

"-right Vegeta?"

Vegeta turned his head towards Bulma. "What was that?"

"I was just telling Launch that you came back for the reunion and that you own your own private security firm."

"Oh." Vegeta loosened his tie. "Yes, that I do."

"Well, Vegeta, I'm so glad your here. It was nice catching up with the both of you, and might I say, you both still make the cutest couple." Launch grinned at them and then moved on to the next group of people.

Bulma grabbed hold of his hand and led them to a table. As they approached he groaned when he saw the occupants sitting at it; Krillin, Tien, Goku and ChiChi.

"See! I told you I saw him!" Krillin said as Vegeta sat down at one of the empty chairs.

"Holy, shit." Tien mumbled.

Goku stood up and gave Vegeta a few hardy pats on the back while he shook his hand. "Man, it's great to see you alive and kicking. We didn't believe Krillin saw you."

Vegeta half huffed, half chuckled.

"Why don't ChiChi and I get some food and drinks for you guys, while you all catch up."

ChiChi got up and followed her friend to the buffet table, eager to grill her friend for the nitty gritty details about Vegeta's unexpected arrival and of course if there was anything going on between them.

"So, where you been, man?" Goku said, bringing Vegeta's attention back to him. He was watching Bulma make her way to the buffet table, where Jeice was standing by.

They all were leaning forward, eyes wide eager to hear why he'd left.

Vegeta shrugged.

"Ah, come on, bro! Let's start at where the hell you went? You just disappeared. There were rumors about where you went and what happened. You've been the greatest mystery slash disappearing act of West City." Krillin said, popping an olive in his mouth. "Spill man!"

Vegeta inhaled and exhaled loudly. "I joined the army."

Tien shook his head. "You can't join the army unless you are a high school graduate. You left a week before graduation."

Vegeta gave him a disapproving glare. _Tien, still the know it all asshole of the group. _"True. I took the GED test. Passed, then went straight to boot camp."

Tien rolled his eyes at him. Vegeta smirked in victory. Ever since they were in junior high, Tien seemed to always have a beef with Vegeta. Why? Nobody knew.

"Now what do you do for a living?" Goku asked.

"Private Security."

His old friend perked with interest. "Private Security, huh?" He nodded thoughtfully. "Good money in private security."

Vegeta nodded his head and turned his attention back to watching Bulma. She was heading back with a plate piled with finger foods, and a couple of drinks.

She handed him a glass and he took a sip, thanking god that it was alcoholic.

"What are you guys talking about?" Bulma asked as she took a seat next to Vegeta and ChiChi.

"We were giving Vegeta the third degree about where he's been and what he does." Krillin said, reaching over to steal a pig in a blanket off of Bulma's plate.

ChiChi turned to Vegeta. "So which was it?"

Vegeta gave her a confused look.

ChiChi rolled her eyes. "Which rumor was true?"

Bulma chuckled. "I don't think he knows about the rumors." She looked at Vegeta. "Let's see, people said that you ran off to the next town to elope with some chick, You were kid napped, You killed yourself and You plain just ran away."

"The ladder." Vegeta stated flatly. He furrowed his eyes. "Why the hell would I runaway and elope with some unknown chick?" Vegeta blurted out, in an after thought.

Every body laughed. "Yeah, well, most of us knew that wasn't true. We all knew you only had eyes for Bulma." Goku said, winking at his friends.

Both Vegeta and Bulma blushed and awkwardly looked at each other.

xXxXxXxXx

After about two or three of what ever alcoholic drinks Bulma kept getting for Vegeta, he felt more relaxed. He actually was enjoying a conversation that he and Goku were having about guns and were now swapping stories about what they came across on their jobs. Vegeta, of course, had to keep his stories vague.

Every once in a while a random person would come up to talk to them, especially Vegeta. And if it weren't for sporting a comfy buzz, Vegeta would have lost his mind having to repeat the same answers to the same questions that everyone was asking: Where have you been? What do you do?

And of course he would have to listen to his old classmates brag about their life's accomplishments; 'I'm the top real estate agent for West City.' or 'I'm a school teacher' and his personal favorite 'Porn star.' He practically choked on his drink when the woman said so, especially when she was the most quiet person in the school.

After a few hours, Bulma announced that she was ready to go home. Vegeta was thankful, even though he was enjoying his time with his old friend (even though he'd never admit it out loud) he still needed to take care of business.

"I should have brought a sweatshirt." Bulma said, rubbing her hands vigorously up and down her arms when they exited the school gym. She nearly jumped when she felt Vegeta drape his jacket over her shoulders.

"Better?"

"Yes. Thanks."

He unlocked the car, and again looked around to make sure there wasn't anything on or around his car. He then quickly looked around the parking lot, noting he did not see Burter nor Jeice lurking around. Unfortunately, he lost track of the two of them whilst talking shop with Goku.

Vegeta swiftly got in the car, started it up and took of towards Bulma's home.

The woman prattled on about the reunion and the latest gossip she had heard. Vegeta would periodically nod his head or grunt, giving Bulma the impression that he was listening.

He had other things on his mind, like, when should he tell her that she will be leaving West City for some time and just how the hell was he going to make the Ginyu Force believe that she was dead?

When Bulma paused in her jabbering, Vegeta cut in. "Woman..." He hesitated. He just needed to come out and say it_. 'Bulma, I'm an assassin, you've pissed the wrong people off and we have to fake your death, otherwise you're history.' _He glanced over to Bulma. She was looking at him, her forehead creased and eyebrows arched, waiting for him to speak.

He growled in frustration. Damnit! He was a heartless killer! He was the most blunt person he's ever known! So why couldn't he just out and say what he needed to say?

"Vegeta? Are you OK?"

He exhaled heavily through his nose. Fuck it, he'd tell her first thing in the morning. "I had a good time with you tonight." It wasn't a lie.

Bulma smiled at him. "I did too. I'm really glad you came back." She reached over and placed her hand on top of his that was resting on the gear shift.

He scowled slightly as he looked down at her hand on his. How he missed her touch... he could tell she missed his as well. Her big blue eyes drank him in, giving him the same look she always gave him back when they were together. Silently telling him that he could do no wrong in her eyes. The love for him within her never died, not even after all of these years. But... by tomorrow, she'd probably have a different outlook on him altogether.

Vegeta pulled into the driveway, putting the car in park.

"You want to come in?" Bulma asked as she unbuckled herself.

He shook his head. "I've got some things to do. How about we get together tomorrow morning? Breakfast?"

Bulma smiled and nodded. "Breakfast sounds great. Good night Vegeta."

She leaned over and gave him a sweet kiss on the lips and then exited the car.

Vegeta watched as she unlocked her front door and took off once she was safely behind her front door.

His lips still tingled from her kiss... He smiled.

xXxXxXxXxXx

Bulma closed the door behind her. She was on cloud nine. She felt like she did when she was in high school.

She made her way to the kitchen, plucking a chocolate chip cookie off of the plate she left on the counter. While she ate her treat, she couldn't help but think about Vegeta... of course. Although his demeanor hadn't changed much, she could tell he had hardened over the years, whether it be because of being in the army or his job, something had changed him. And she couldn't help but think about the small idiosyncrasies he would display in front of her. Like for example, how he always was looking over his surroundings. His body always seemed coiled, ready to be on the defensive if attacked. And, him looking around his car suspiciously as if expecting to find a bomb attached to it or something.

She laughed out loud at the last thought.

Bulma stuffed the remaining piece of cookie in her mouth and headed upstairs. As she entered her bedroom, something in her jacket pocket vibrated. Realizing she still had Vegeta's jacket on, she grabbed his cell out of the pocket. The caller ID said Eighteen. What a peculiar name. She hit decline, not feeling comfortable answering Vegeta's phone and stuffed it back into the pocket. It instantly started buzzing again. Apparently Eighteen really wanted to talk to him. She ignored it and took the jacket off and tossed it onto her chase that was next to her.

As she looked up, she was shocked to see a very large man, with purple hair, staring at her from across the room. But the thing that scared her most of all were the two oozies he was carrying in each hand.

"Hello." He said, giving her a toothy smile. He took a step towards her, lifting his weapons up at her.

Bulma screamed.

xXxXxXxXx

Vegeta got two blocks away when he realized he left his jacket on Bulma. His phone was in the pocket.

He cursed under his breath as he flipped an illegal u-turn and sped towards her house.

He parked his car in the drive way and headed to the front door... it was ajar. With a huff he opened the door all the while ranting about how the blasted woman will never learn her lesson and lock the god damned door behind her.

A blood curdling scream and a thundering crash that came from upstairs brought him to attention.

"Shit!" He grabbed his pistol from the his waistband, checking the clip and cocking it as he ran upstairs.

**My apologies for leaving you all on a cliffhanger. There is a lot going on in the next chapter, and where I left you all off was the most logical thing to do. The next installment, things get moving... =) Lemme know what you think!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Good day people. This chapter has a little blood in it... not too horrible. **

**Thank you all who reviewed! And thank you all who are reading this fic! I honestly didn't think this fic would be so liked!**

**Check out JungleHead13 on Deviant Art. She drew a human Frieza for this fic! So awesome!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

* * *

"Shit!" Vegeta hissed. "Shit, shit, shit shit."

He ran up the stairs two at a time and straight into Bulma's room. He kicked the door in and dove for cover when Burter squeezed off rounds upon rounds from his oozie in his direction.

Vegeta skidded to the other side of the room, taking cover behind Bulma's large bed.

"Vegeta. Come on out." Burter said in a playful tone.

Carefully looking over the mattress, he sighed in relief to see that Bulma was alive. Burter had a hold of her in his left arm, his hand covering her mouth. She was struggling to get free, but the hulking man's strength was no match for her petite frame.

"I thought I had till Sunday." Vegeta yelled from behind the bed.

Burter cracked a smile. "Frieza was getting impatient."

Vegeta rolled his eyes. "Something tells me your boss planned on rubbing me out all along. He just wanted me to do his dirty work for him before you killed me too." Still taking cover, he crawled to the end of the bed and readied himself.

"Kudos to you, you found us out." Burter teased. "Now, why don't you make this easy on me and come on out. I'll even let you choose who I kill first. You or your little blue haired girlfriend."

When Vegeta didn't make a move, Burter took a step forward to where Vegeta was hiding, dragging Bulma with him. "You know, you really should have joined us, Vegeta. We need a guy like you on our team. It's a pity, really."

"I don't work well with others." Vegeta said as he held his hands up and stood up slowly facing Burter. He gave Bulma a quick glance, making sure the oaf hadn't harmed her. Other than scaring her half to death, she seemed fine. "Kill me first."

Burter jerked back slightly with surprise. "Really? You're actually going to go down without a fight?"

Vegeta nodded and walked away from the bed and knelt on his knees, interlacing his fingers on top of his head. "I want an open casket, so try not to shoot me in the face." He shot Bulma a knowing smirk and wasn't surprised to see her large blue eyes staring back at him as if he were a crazy person with a tinge of fear. He looked back to Burter.

The purple haired assassin grinned as he prepared to fire. "This is quite the honor. I'm about to kill THE Vegeta Ouji." He raised his oozy, pointing at Vegeta's head.

"Yeah, well I wish I could say the same... I'm about to be killed by a dumb ass with fucking purple hair."

Burter sneered at him. "My hair is not dumb. It's my signature." He prepared to fire, but before he could pull the trigger, Vegeta bounced up off of the floor and kicked Burter square in the gut, making him double over. His grip on Bulma loosened but she was still unable to wriggle free from his grasp. Vegeta grabbed his hand gun that was stashed in the waistband of his pants and shot him between the eyes with one shot.

Bulma's wide eyes watched as her ex-boyfriend straightened and eyed Burters surprised face. The large man's hold loosened and fell away from her all together as he lifelessly fell onto the floor.

Too dumbfounded (and scared shitless) to say anything, she continued to watch, eyes practically bulging out of her skull, as Vegeta bent over and searched the dead man's body, stashing his cell phone and wallet in his pockets.

She flinched when he grasped both of her upper arms and looked her in the eyes. "I need you to calm down and focus, Bulma."

Calm down? How the hell was she supposed to calm down? "You...you just killed that guy." Her voice was shaky and just above a whisper as she tried to make sense of the matter.

"You're hyperventilating. Breathe in through your nose and out of your mouth. I don't need you passing out on me."

Bulma didn't notice, probably because she was focusing on not having a heart attack and throwing up everything she had ever consumed in her life, that she was indeed hyperventilating. She did what Vegeta instructed.

"What the FUCK is going on!" She finally screamed.

"Shit Woman! Don't yell! I'll explain everything to you later." He grasped her hand and led her towards the door. He paused a moment to retrieve his jacket and put it on, checking to see if his phone was still in the pocket. He grabbed hold of Bulma's arm again and halted at the door.

"Burter?" A male's voice hollered from down stairs, his Australian accent was rather thick. "Have you finished yet? Come on mate, I'm hungry. Oh and make sure you grab Vegeta's car keys... I've always wanted me a brand new Challenger."

Vegeta's upper lip curled upward with disgust. Nobody touched his baby! He let go of Bulma and turned to her.

"Stay here, Woman. Don't come out until I come for you..." He quickly slipped out of room, closing the door behind him.

Bulma stood where Vegeta had left her, too scared to move.

What was happening? Did she really just see Vegeta, shoot a man between the eyes? She turned to look at the man, who was lying on her carpet, blood oozing out of the bullet hole, his brains splattered across her wall.

...Yup. That happened.

Was she in a dream? Had she fallen asleep and this crazy ass shit was part of a nightmare? She looked around her bedroom, seeing the bullet holes that littered her walls. This was not a dream.

The severity of the situation hit her when she heard a shout come from downstairs and then gunshots rang out.

* * *

Vegeta stealthily crept down the stairs, careful not to make any noise. He could hear Jeice in the kitchen, going through Bulma's refrigerator. He noiselessly made his way to the entryway of the kitchen and saw the door of the refrigerator open and Jeice's rear end sticking out while he rummaged for food.

He sprinted towards the fridge door and kicked it as hard as he could, making the door and Jeice fly to the side, Jeice skidding on the tile floor and the door on top of him.

Vegeta smirked, but it soon was replaced by a look of shock when he saw a hand gun peek it's way out from under the fridge door and started spraying bullets in all directions. He grunted when he caught a bullet in the shoulder and quickly rolled on the floor taking cover behind the kitchen counter. He blindly unloaded a clip in Jeice's direction by lifting his hand and shooting over the counter. Only stopping when he unloaded a full clip in his general direction. He stuffed his gun back in his in the waist line of his pants, silently cursing himself for not bringing more clips with him. Vegeta grabbed his shoulder and applied pressure to it as he looked around frantically for something he could use to defend himself.

A large clunk noise told Vegeta that Jeice had freed himself from under the fridge door.

"You still alive, mate?" Jeice called out.

"Yup." Vegeta yelled back in a bored tone. He looked around, his eyes locking onto a half full glass ketchup bottle that had been one of the many condiments that had flown across the kitchen when Vegeta kicked the door off of it's hinges.

The sound of Jeice stepping over the food that littered the kitchen floor, alerted Vegeta that he was slowly making his way to him. And by the sound of it, the assassin was limping. Vegeta smirked, at least one of his attacks had injured him.

He waited and listened patiently, for the time to be right to attack. He needed to end this quickly. The gun shot to his shoulder was starting to really hurt and he was slowly but steadily losing blood, on top of that, he was sure the cops had been called from the entire ruckus Burter had caused.

"You should just quit now, friend. If you get past me, you will be hunted down like a dog." Jeice snickered. "So why don't you just come on out and I'll put you down."

Vegeta sucked in a sharp intake of air, trying to suppress the dull shooting pain from his injury. "Burter said something similar before I fucking shot him between the eyes." Vegeta grit his teeth as he ripped his belt off and tide it around his shoulder, using it as a tourniquet. "What makes you think I'm not going to hunt each and every one of you fuck sticks down? You're boss just royally fucked all of you over."

"Yeah right. You're just one man, Vegeta. What makes you think you can take down the Ginyu force and Frieza?"

His voice was getting closer now. Vegeta sat on his haunches, readying himself... Jeice's steps stopped just on the other side of the counter.

Vegeta gripped the ketchup bottle and bolted upright while simultaneously smashing the glass bottle on the edge of the counter. He then flew across the counter and buried the broken bottle into Jeice's chest.

Jeice looked down at his chest, his mouth opening and closing, but no words came out.

Vegeta eyed the man up and down. "Honestly... what is up with you guys and your retarded hair?" He shook his head and promptly delivered a powerful kick to the protruding bottle from Jeice's chest, burying it deeper into his chest, finishing him off.

Not giving the man a second look, he ran up to Bulma's room and narrowly dodged a lamp that was thrown at his head.

Bulma stood at the other end of her room, clutching a very large and heavy looking vase. "You're not going to kill me are you?" She said, cocking her arm back, preparing to launch the vase at him.

Vegeta sagged slightly, and held up his hands up in defense. He was sure that if she chucked that vase at him, she'd hit him seeing as the blood loss was making him a little sluggish.

"No, I'm not going to kill you, Bulma."

Bulma dropped the vase, seeing the blood on Vegeta's hand and shoulder. "You're hurt!"

"It's nothing I can't handle." He waved her off as she approached him, trying to get a better look at his wound.

"Just let me see..." She tried to remove his jacket, and hissed at him when he shoved her hands off of him.

"Stop trying to coddle me woman, I've been in worse shape. We need to leave now, before the rest of them come." He grabbed her hand and yanked her out of her room and down the stairs.

"What do you mean the rest of them? And what the fuck happened to my kitchen?" She yelled as they breezed past the mess Vegeta and Jeice had made and nearly wretched seeing a man with a horrid tan and white hair laying on the floor with a ketchup bottle imbedded in his chest.

Vegeta ignored her and continued to drag her out of her house and all but shoved her into the passenger side of his car and hurriedly entered himself.

As they sped off, the sirens of police cars blared and then grew quiet as they put distance between Bulma's home and them.

"Open the glove box and take out the small green med-kit." Vegeta commanded through gritted teeth. The pain in his shoulder was getting severe.

Bulma got the green box and opened it. He grabbed a pouch of 'Quick Clot' and expertly sped down the highway one handed as he ripped his shirt open and then the pouch with his teeth. He took a deep breath and then poured the powdered contents over the gun shot on his shoulder.

He let out a muffled yowl as the powder stung and worked its magic. He then got his cell out and called Eighteen.

"Sir?"

"Is safe house 5 activated?"

"Sir, you sound like you're in pain-"

"Answer the fucking question, Eighteen!" He screamed.

"Yes, sir. It is."

Vegeta pushed air out of his lips, trying to get a hold of himself. "I'm on my way there. Be there ASAP." He hung the phone up.

He looked over to Bulma, who was staring at him wide eyed. He could tell she was scared and was starting to hyperventilate again.

"Woman, calm down-"

"Why do you keep telling me to calm down? How can you ask me to calm down after I come home and find a huge man with purple hair in my room with a pair of oozies, wanting to kill me? And then here you come like some sort of super hero secret agent and shoot him in the head..." She had to stop her tirade. She was getting light headed. "You killed the other guy with a goddamned ketchup bottle... who the fuck are you?"

"If you promise to calm down, I'll tell you everything."

Bulma slowly nodded. "Fine." She stared at him expectantly.

Vegeta kept his eyes on the road, and hesitated, trying to find the right words. This was tougher than he thought.

"Well?" Bulma blurted out after a few minutes of silence.

"Don't rush me Woman!" He spat back and winced when he jostled his injured shoulder while whipping his head over to look at her.

Bulma 'harrumphed' and crossed her arms over her chest and stared at him, waiting for him to explain already.

Vegeta bared his teeth and growled in frustration. "I'm an assassin for the government." He gave Bulma a sideways glance.

"I gathered that." She deadpanned, but let him continue.

This next part was going to be a little tough to explain. "I originally came to town to kill you." He lifted his index finger, stopping her before she could scream or saying anything before he could continue. "Chances are, if someone asks me to kill you, you usually have done something to deserve getting killed." He ran his hand through his sweat soaked hair. "BUT, I did my research, and come to find out we both have seen or have done something to royally piss off a very powerful person."

Bulma furrowed her brows, then her eyes widened. "The government contract... yeah... I was building a weapons system for them... The guy that I was dealing with was giving me bad vibes, so I hacked into some files that I probably shouldn't have and ended the project after finding out what they were planning on doing with the weapon."

"Let me guess, the guy you were building the weapon for was Frieza Cold."

Bulma nodded. "Yeah."

Vegeta nodded. "Yeah, well, I too found some stuff out that I shouldn't have... that, and I pissed him off. That's why he sent me to kill you; it was punishment for throwing his offer to add me onto his team of hit men back in his face. He's tying up loose ends." He shook his head. "I think he underestimated me... When I found out that you were innocent, I planned on staging a fake hit and smuggling you out of West City and stashing you somewhere until this whole cluster fuck of a situation blew over."

"This is nuts!"

Vegeta grit his teeth. "No shit."

"Would you have killed me, if I deserved it?" Her voice was shaky.

"Yes." Vegeta stated flatly.

Bulma hugged herself and started to rock back and forth in her seat. This was all just too much. The man that sat next to her is an assassin for the government, who was sent to kill her and would have too. Thank goodness she didn't turn into some sort of whack-job scientist that was hell bent on ruling the world. And to top it all off, she still felt just as strongly about him just as she did when she was in high school... Vegeta was right, this was a cluster fuck.

"Why didn't you tell me?" She said in a low whisper, still rocking back and forth.

Vegeta's shoulder's tensed at the question. "What did you want me to say, Bulma? 'Hey how have you been? I kill people for a living.' Somehow I don't think that would go over very well." He knew his sharp tone wasn't helping the situation, but damnit, he was stressed. This was not how he had planned things out. He looked over to her, his harsh expression softening slightly. "This is why I left you. I knew my life was going down a dark path and I didn't want to bring you down with me. I was protecting you." He gripped the steering wheel. "I didn't want to hurt you. It's why I left, and it's why I stayed away all these years."

The conversation ended there.

After about an hour of driving, Bulma fell asleep and didn't wake up until Vegeta gently shook her awake.

"Woman, wake up." His rough voice commanded.

Bulma groggily opened her eyes and took in her surroundings. They were in some large city. She wasn't sure which one, since it was in the middle of the night. There were high rise buildings surrounding her and taxi cabs everywhere.

She exited the car where Vegeta parked in an alleyway where other cars were parked.

He hooked his arm around her waist and led her into a posh looking apartment building. He nodded to the doorman, ignoring him as he gawked at his blood soaked jacket.

They walked directly into an elevator and Bulma looked at Vegeta curiously when he hit the button sending them to the penthouse.

"This is safe house number five?" She asked sarcastically. "Usually safe houses are dark, dank shacks in the middle of nowhere. Not some ritzy apartment."

Vegeta grunted at her. He was in no mood. "Clearly you watch too much TV."

When the doors opened, Vegeta led her down a short hallway and unlocked the door.

The apartment was pitch black and eerily quiet. He kept her behind him and they both froze when they heard a gun being cocked.

A fraction of a second later, the lights came on and a tall blond with a hand gun appeared. She lowered her weapon, seeing who it was and smirked ever so slightly.

"Sir."

Vegeta nodded at her and Bulma peeked around him to get a better look at the woman.

"I need you to get this bullet out of me."

The blond nodded and motioned for him to take a seat on the 'L' shapted couch and gave Bulma a cautious glare. She then disappeared from the room and then reappeared not a moment later with a large first aid kit in hand.

Vegeta tore his jacket off and allowed Bulma to help him to the couch. Eighteen stared at them, surprised that her surly boss let the small blue haired woman help him at all. Very uncharacteristic of him.

Bulma sat down on the other side of the couch, not wanting to be in the way and watched as the blond prepped for on the spot surgery. She couldn't help but let her eyes wonder over Vegeta's naked, chiseled chest. This obviously was not the first time he'd been shot. She counted five different scarred over bullet holes. Two in the chest, just above his heart. One on his side and two on the opposite shoulder that was injured. This new one made number six.

"Eighteen, this is Bulma." Vegeta grunted.

Eighteen merely gave Bulma a curt nod and started to clean the area of the gunshot wound on Vegeta's shoulder.

"Frieza got impatient. He sent two of his dumb asses to kill the woman and me... Obviously he thought lowly of me if he sent the two most idiotic men on his team to kill me."

Eighteen nodded again and grabbed a pair of long nosed tweezers. She emotionlessly stuck them into the bullet hole, ignoring the string of curses that her boss was snarling at her. She yanked the bullet out and tossed it on a towel that was next to her.

"What do we do now?"

Vegeta remained silent for a moment, lightning bolts of pain rocketed down his arm. "It's obvious they want me and her dead." He shook his head. "I think we all need some sleep. I can come up with a plan of attack in the morning, I need to clear my head."

Eighteen finished bandaging Vegeta up, she nodded to him and then Bulma before she silently retired to one of the bedroom of the large penthouse apartment.

Vegeta turned to Bulma. "You should get some sleep. I need you clear headed... There are plenty of bedrooms, choose whichever pleases you."

Bulma scooted closer to where Vegeta was sitting. "I think I'm going to sleep out here."

Vegeta grunted. "Suit yourself."

"Vegeta... will..." She grabbed a lock of her blue hair and fiddled with it. "Do you mind staying with me... until I fall asleep?"

His brow creased at her question, but continued to stare at the coffee table in front of him. He barely tilted his head towards her and nodded.

"Thank you." She whispered.

"Hmph."

Bulma scooted as close as she could to him without actually touching him, curled up into a ball and closed her eyes. Knowing Vegeta was there next to her put her frazzled nerves at ease.

* * *

beta'd by WithoutWingsX

**On a totally different note, not pertaining to this fic... I drew cover art for Destiny Lost. You can check it out on Deviant Art. My pen name is maymayb =)**


	7. Chapter 7

**Hi guys. So, I decided to forego getting this chapter beta'd for now. I feel bad making you guys wait for such a long time on an update, and was a little antsy to get this thing posted. I will probably send it off to beta and re-upload it later on. Just be warned that this thing is totally raw. raw, raw , raw, raw.**

**Anywho, thank you all for the fantastic reviews! Please keep them coming, I enjoy hearing from you all!**

**Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing. =)**

Goku stood back up from sifting through the ruble in Bulma's room and itched the back of his head. He was more than frazzled.

His cell phone buzzed for the hundredth time today. The police sergeant fielded at least ten phone calls from his wife when she got word of what happened at her best friends house and was frantic. Seeing it was her again, he turned his phone off. He didn't have an update for her, and wasn't in the mood to deal with her demanding updates every thirty minutes... Goku swore sometimes his wife was worse than the police chief.

He looked at the rest of the room; the coroner was finally bagging up the large man with purple hair. Two other officers were bagging up the pair of oozies and marking and numbering both the shells and the bullet holes that littered the walls.

He wished silently that Bulma was somewhere, safe. Maybe she and Vegeta went to his hotel room and hadn't come home yet.

Goku grabbed a random officer, and asked him to find out where Vegeta Ouji was staying and to see if Bulma was there with him.

He then headed downstairs to look at the kitchen again.

The body of the white haired man was still lying on the floor, not yet bagged by the coroner. Goku cringed. Death by ketchup bottle, what a way to go.

Again, there were a few more crime scene guys tagging and marking things as evidence. Taking samples of the blood smears on the kitchen counter and finger printing the damn condiment bottle sticking out of the guy's chest.

He was beyond worried for his oldest friend. There was no sign of her! Her purse, cell phone and laptop -things she almost always had on her at all times- were left in the entry hall. Maybe she wasn't with Vegeta...Was she kidnapped? Was she dead? Did she kill the two men in her home and then ran off, too scared to come home?

"Sarge?"

Goku turned around. One of the rookie police officers approached him, an apprehensive look on his face.

"Yeah?"

"Um, Sarge, there's a man that is requesting to enter the crime scene. He says he's from the FBI."

Goku's eyebrows raised in surprise. FBI? "Uh...Show him in?"

The rookie nodded his head and disappeared out of the kitchen and reappeared with a very tall, well dressed, bald man in tow. The rookie nodded his head towards Goku, the bald man thanked him and walked up to the confused Sergeant.

"Sergeant Son?"

Goku nodded his head wearily.

"Sergeant Son, I'm Special Agent Piccolo from the FBI. I will be taking over this investigation, though, I will require your departments full cooperation." The man spoke in a no-nonsense way.

Goku sighed. He knew from the moment he stepped foot into this house he was in way over his head. "My men will give their full cooperation. Just as long as you find my friend, I will help out as much as I can as well."

Agent Piccolo nodded once and proceeded to observe the scene in the kitchen.

XxXxXxX

Vegeta sat in the medium sized kitchen-ette area of the swanky penthouse sweet he, Eighteen and Bulma were hiding in. His elbows were propped up on the kitchen table and his hands were rubbing his temples. He long since stopped reading the files that were displayed on his laptop screen.

He was tired, even though he got a solid five hours sleep...The assassin had been up before daybreak, surprisingly not because his internal alarm told him it was time to get up.

He woke up to his name being softly murmured in his ear. He opened his eyes to see that somehow, in the middle of the night, Bulma and he had entangled their limbs around each other and were now laying horizontally on the large couch. Bulma lay slightly on top of him, her head nestled in the crook of his neck, while his arms had found their way around her body in a protective yet gentle hold.

It was amazing how familiar this felt, after all these years. He always felt so at home and at peace when they were together like this. Hell just being with her made him feel like a better man. Back when they were together, it felt as if Bulma scared the demons away that haunted Vegeta.

But soon the warm feeling Bulma was feeding Vegeta left and was replaced by uncertainty and darkness. If he had any hope in protecting Bulma's life -and his for that matter- things needed to be done. People needed to be killed, and unfortunately Bulma was along for the ride, whether she or he liked it or not.

"I found it!" Eighteen's voice broke through his internal thoughts.

Vegeta let go of his temples and looked across the table, giving his blonde assistant his attention.

"Frieza has scheduled a huge offload of weaponry to his biggest client in the middle east." Eighteen said without looking up from her own laptop. "A Sikh. It looks to be a huge offload too. Over fifty million dollars in weaponry is being sold to this Sikh."

Vegeta leaned over slightly to the side to check on Bulma, who was in the living room. Her long hair was still damp and hung loosely down her back from taking a shower. Her blood stained clothes replaced with the pair of jeans and black shirt Vegeta had bought the previous day in West City. Her legs were pulled up into her chest and her arms hugged them tightly. Her face had a twinge of worry, but was otherwise calm as she watched early morning news casts on the tv.

He straightened out again and pinched the bridge of his nose and grunted.

"It looks like the exchange will take place in Paris, France in approximately four weeks. Enough time for you to intercept."

"Uh... Guys..." Bulma hollered from the other room. "I think you all need to see this."

Both Vegeta and Eighteen walked to the living room and looked at the TV, as Bulma turned up the volume.

"-heiress to the Capsule Corporation, Bulma Briefs is missing." The female news caster announced. To the left of the screen a picture of Bulma from a gala she had attended a few months ago popped up. "Police were called to Ms. Briefs home at 11:30 last night, complaints of gun shots fired were made from multiple neighbors. Responding officers were shocked to find two rooms completely shot up and two dead bodies. The identities of the men have not yet been released. We will now go live to a press conference regarding these events."

The screen then went to show the outside of Bulma's home. Crime scene workers, police officers and men in suites bustled about as Goku and a tall bald man stood in front of a podium with half a dozen microphones from different new stations.

"We at the FBI are not sure at this time if Ms. Briefs is a victim or is an accomplice of what has occurred. She was last seen with this man." The bald man held up a picture of Vegeta that had been taken a few years back when he was still in the army. He had his formal navy blue uniform on, showing his many ribbons and medals, and white service cap. If it weren't for his usual scowl and coal black eyes, Bulma wouldn't have recognized him in the picture. She almost had to suppress a giggle at the site of his buzzed hair cut underneath his service cap.

"This man's name is Vegeta Ouji Junior. He is a highly decorated army veteran and is considered armed and dangerous. We have received word that Mr. Ouji is an illegal arms dealer and is a possible terrorist. If you seen any of them, please call 911."

Vegeta growled as he shut the TV off and stomped over to the floor to ceiling windows that overlooked the bustling city below. He rested his forehead on the cool glass and closed his eyes.

"This just got ten times harder." He grumbled to himself.

Bulma flopped down onto the couch. "I...I have no words." She said as she buried her face into her arms.

Eighteen sat down next to Bulma and shook her head as the blue haired woman started to rock back and forth on the couch. The woman was not coping well with the situation. She looked to her boss patiently. He was deep in thought, the gears in his brain working out a plan of action.

It was one of the qualities she admired about her him. Always able to keep calm in a shitty situation and come up with a solid plan.

Vegeta inhaled through his nose and exhaled through his mouth. He opened his eyes and abruptly twisted around and headed back to his laptop and proceeded to type furiously on the keyboard.

"Fuck me." He murmured.

Eighteen and Bulma both stood up and came into the kitchen, both looking at Vegeta with concern.

"They've already frozen all of my accounts in the states..." He paused and again started to type furiously for another second, his deep scowl relaxed slightly. He was thankful he had opened up an account under a fake name in Zurich, which had a substantial amount of money in it.

Vegeta looked to Eighteen. "Contact Cap'. Tell him that the Woman and I are heading his way. If we leave soon, we should be there by nightfall."

Eighteen nodded and left the room to make the phone call her boss requested her to do.

Bulma sat in the chair next to Vegeta and watched as he stared at his laptop. "My parents are probably worried sick. I need to call them and tell them that I'm safe."

"Woman, you are not to contact anyone, is that clear?" Vegeta snapped. He looked up at her, making sure she understood. "The FBI and I'm sure the CIA think you're running with a terrorist. We need to lay low and stay alive for the next four weeks."

Bulma lower lip started to tremble and quickly looked down at the table. God this was a mess.

Vegeta continued, his tone gruff and annoyed. "Frieza's men most likely have your friends and loved one's phone's tapped and under surveillance. The second you call them they will come after us, and most likely will kill the people you care about most." His jaw clenched when he saw a single tear fall roll off of her cheek and landed on the table. He cursed himself mentally.

He sighed and lightly touched her hand. "Bulma..."

She looked up at him with soggy blue eyes. _So scared_. "Vegeta... I don't think I can do this." She said, barely above a whisper.

"Yes you can. If you're the same person I knew ten years ago, you can do this... and I promise you, Bulma. As long as I'm still breathing, I will do everything in my power to keep you alive."

Bulma smiled lightly through the tears and nodded.

He took his hand back and scowled at her. "I need you to get your shit together. I can't have you slowing me down with your emotions."

Her smile vanished and glared at him. Leave it to Vegeta. Say something sweet and finish it with a shitty comment.

He smirked at her, knowing what she was thinking and went back to work on his computer. "In four weeks, one of the largest arms deals will be going down in the middle east. Frieza will be there. If I catch him in the act and get evidence, then I will be able to clear my name and yours."

Bulma wiped the tears away from her cheeks. "Then life will go back to normal?"

Vegeta merely grunted. _Sure, normal. Whatever that was_.

Shortly after Eighteen called the man Vegeta called Cap', Bulma assumed was a nickname, Vegeta gave Eighteen orders to go to West City. He wanted her to keep an eye on the investigation, since he found that the FBI had set up a temporary headquarters there.

With her long blue hair stuffed in a cap, Bulma now sat in the passenger seat of Vegeta's black Challenger. She peered over at Vegeta, who seemed to be deep in thought as he drove the two of them to wherever this Cap' guy was.

They were quiet, yet the silence in the car seemed loud in a sense. Probably because Bulma's thoughts and worries were constantly being screamed in her head.

"Who is Cap' and why are we going there? As a matter of fact, why don't you tell me what the plan is." Bulma said, shifting towards Vegeta's scowling figure in the drivers seat.

Vegeta gave her a sideways glance, noting her attitude change from before they left. She seemed to be grasping the situation better. "Cap' is a retired assassin that I know. He specializes in identities and forged documents. He's good at what he does."

"Why do you call him Cap'?"

He rolled his eyes. "It's short for Captain. He was a Captain in the army before he was loaned out to the CIA as an assassin."

Bulma stuck her lower lip out thoughtfully and nodded. "Makes sense. "Then what will happen when we get what we need from Cap'?"

Vegeta growled in annoyance. She was bugging him with her questions. This was why he worked alone, if he had a partner, he would have shot them already. "Then we will need to go to Zurich to pick up a few things."

Bulma held out her hands in a stopping motion. "Whoa, whoa whoa. Zurich, Switzerland?"

Vegeta curtly nodded. "Do you know of any other Zurich?"

Bulma glared at him and crossed her arms over her chest.

Vegeta rolled his eyes. "Yes Switzerland. From there we will go to Paris and intercept Frieza... bring him down for good."

Bulma straightened out in her seat, looking forward. It was kind of exciting, once you got passed the killer assassins chasing after the two of them and being wanted by the FBI, possibly the CIA for running with a 'terrorist'. She had never traveled over sea's. And what's more, she was going to Paris, the city of Love... with Vegeta. She chuckled to herself. Her mother always told her 'When life gives you lemons, make lemon-aide'.

XxXxXxXxX

As they drove, their surroundings slowly changed from cityscape to country-side. Buildings were beginning to be few and far between as they continued down the road and it seemed as if they were the only one's on the road, only the random logging truck or car passed them.

Soon they turned onto a dirt road that only was wide enough for one vehicle to pass through. It continued for about a mile and stopped in front of a simple looking house that was in dire need of a new coat of paint.

When Vegeta parked the car in front of the house, he turned the car off and stopped Bulma before she could exit the car.

"Hold it, Woman." Vegeta grabbed hold of her upper arm and looked around through the windshield cautiously. "Get out slowly and don't make any sudden movements." He let go of her arm and got out of the car.

She followed suit and stood perfectly still beside the car. She watched as Vegeta scanned the surrounding area and took his hand gun out of his waistline of his pants, slowly cocking it, readying himself. He walked over to where Bulma stood and motioned for her follow closely behind him.

Bulma took her hat off, letting her long blue hair splash over her shoulders and down her back. She looked around, trying get a better view of her surroundings, but was unable to. It was almost passed dusk, and besides the dim porch light, the area surrounding the beat up house was draped in darkness. Not being a fan of the unknown, Bulma grabbed hold of Vegeta's hand. Having physical contact with her made her feel better.

As they neared the front porch Vegeta halted as he felt cold steel press the back of his skull.

Bulma stopped also, looking at Vegeta, about to ask why he stopped and nearly fainted when she saw a very tall, very well built, bald older looking man with a shot gun, pointed directly at Vegeta's head. Her ex-boyfriend squeezed her hand, telling her it was ok and let go of her. Vegeta slowly held his hands up, letting his Desert Eagle hang loosely around his thumb. He slowly turned around and suppressed the urge to bat the shot gun nuzzle that was now pointed at his cheek.

The tension was thick, and Bulma was sure that something bad was going to happen. The two men starred hatefully at each other and the silence was absolutely deafening.

"Boy, you're in a heap of trouble." The older man said. His southern drawl was thick.

Bulma watched Vegeta as his deep scowl turned into a knowing smirk. "When am I not in a heap of trouble, Cap'?"

Cap' lowered the shot gun. Bulma instantly relaxed. _So, this was Cap'._

"Come on," He slung the shotgun over his shoulder and waived his hand, as he walked passed the two of them and opened the door to the house. "you should get indoors. Who knows who's out there." He pointed to the surrounding country side.

Vegeta tucked his gun back in his pants and ushered Bulma into the house.

Cap' turned a few lights on telling them to make themselves at home.

Bulma was pleasantly surprised by the interior of the home. It wasn't what she expected. The inside was neat and tidy. The living room had a nice entertainment center, chalk full of dvd's complete with a large flat screen tv. She could tell by the dvd selection, Cap' was single. Lot's of action movies, filled with blood and gore, not one romantic comedy.

She followed Vegeta into the kitchen where Cap' was fetching beers for his guests.

Cap' handed her a bottle of bud light and tipped an imaginary hat. "Ms. Bulma. I'm Nappa Jones, but my friends call me Cap'."

She nodded politely. "It's nice to meet you, Cap'." She took the bottle of beer and took a healthy swig.

Cap' smiled at her and then looked to Vegeta. "Eighteen said you'd be here, and not ten minutes after she called, I see your ugly mug on the news."

Vegeta chugged the beer in just a few swigs and set the empty bottle down on the counter. "Yeah, well, I pissed of Frieza Cold." He looked to Bulma and then back to Cap'. "So did she. He sent two of his men to off the both of us, but it didn't work out too well for them. I'm thinking he's feeding bullshit lies to the FBI about me being a terrorist and an arms dealer."

Cap pressed his lips together and scratched his bald head. "Yeah, that guy Piccolo," He shook his head. "He's not FBI. He's CIA."

Vegeta growled. "Fuck." He said through gritted teeth. "I knew it."

"He was one of us back in the day. I did a few jobs with him. I'm thinking he's posing as FBI so not to spook the local law enforcement. CIA kind of makes people a little antsy in their pantsy. With that being said, I'm thinking you're correct about Frieza spoon feeding them lies. It makes sense, he's one of the directors of the CIA."

Vegeta nodded. "He's trying to make me his fall guy."

Cap' looked at him, brows furrowed questionably. "Say what now?"

"Frieza's smart. He knows that I know exactly what he does. He covering his own ass and pinning his dirty deals on me before I can pin it on him."

Cap looked thoughtful. "I think you're right Ouji." He finished his beer. "Well, let's step into my office."

Vegeta and Bulma followed him into the dining room, which Cap used as his work place. The large room was filled with large computer screens and computers. All sorts of different camera's hung neatly on the walls and a fancy scanner and other high tech gadgets were placed around the room. Bulma couldn't help but want to play with the toys that surrounded her.

"So, my friend, what can I do for you?"

"The works." Vegeta stated flatly. "I've already got the basic things for me. But the woman needs a new identity, plus a few extra's."

"Extra's huh?" Cap said rubbing his chin.

"What are the extra's?" Bulma asked.

Vegeta merely gave her a sideways glance and took out a small plastic bag out of his back pocket and tossed it to his friend. "There's my identity. Work off of that. I want her to have a Florida State drivers license, passport, social security number and card, credit cards, bank cards..." He paused and sighed heavily looking at Bulma again. "and... a marriage certificate. But she is to have a different last name from mine."

Cap nodded and sat down at his desk. "I'm assuming you will need this ASAP?"

Vegeta grunted. "Yes. I'm going to book a flight to Zurich. I want to leave no later than tomorrow afternoon."

"This is going to cost a pretty penny, Ouji."

Vegeta huffed. "I have enough to buy some supplies and two plane tickets. You know I'm good for it. I'll pay you back when this is over with."

Cap nodded. "Yeah, sure kid." He turned to face his desk went straight to work.

Bulma walked up to Vegeta. "Um, a marriage certificate?"

Vegeta rolled his eyes at her. "It's pre-cautionary." He then turned on his heel and stomped out of the room, leaving Bulma staring at the door he had just exited out of.

"Ms. Bulma."

Bulma turned around to Cap'. She watched as he opened large door from one of the many metal lockers that lined one of the walls.

"Which will it be?"

She walked to the opened locker door and gasped. Wigs. Wigs of every different color, length and style. She went straight for the wig that was just as black as Vegeta's hair. It was finely made, the hair soft, silky and shiny and the length matched hers.

Cap then went into another locker and produced two little white boxes and handed them to her. "Contacts. Their brown." He informed her. "Why don't you step into the bathroom and get yourself situated, then come out here and we'll get your picture taken for your license and passport.

She nodded and hesitated as she looked again at the door Vegeta had stomped out of.

"Don't worry about him. He just needs to blow off some steam." Cap assured her. She kindly nodded to him and headed to the bathroom.

XxXxXxXxX

It was well passed 10pm. Cap' took the necessary pictures of Bulma and were waiting on the ink on a few of the documents that he forged for his old friend to dry.

Bulma had since removed the wig and contacts and was currently passed out on his couch, the TV was on, but the volume was down low.

Cap headed out to the porch, where Vegeta was and sat next to him, handing him a beer. He knew when Bulma asked him about the marriage certificate what Vegeta was feeling, and why he stomped out of the room.

"I'm done. Once I prove my innocence, I'm done." Vegeta said. His voice low and his eyes were looking out to the darkness.

Cap' nodded. "What changed?"

Vegeta took a gulp of beer and hunched over his knees, his elbow rested on his knee and the other arm laid loosely over the other. He shook his head. "A few years ago, I couldn't see myself doing anything but the job..."

"But?"

Vegeta ran his free hand through his hair. "But, now I don't enjoy it... especially after seeing-" He stopped himself before he could finish. It was something he wasn't ready to say out loud yet. Announcing his weakness for the blue haired woman out loud didn't sit well with him.

Cap' looked at his friend and nodded, knowingly. He had seen the same look in his old friend's eyes only once before.

"You know they won't let you go easily, right? It's not like you can go off and into the sunset and live happily ever after with your woman and be free. You will always be an assassin."

"What are you trying to say?" Vegeta snapped, looking at Cap'.

"Look, Vegeta. All I'm saying is, be careful. Because as far as they're concerned, you're the property of the United States, and they will do anything to ensure they keep what belongs to them... including taking things that are precious to you to keep you in line. They'd assume kill you rather than let you go. Be prepared for the fight of your life."

Vegeta looked away at his old friend and started to stare off into the dark again.

"But, I have to say, Ouji... I've never met anyone like you. I'm sure once this whole ordeal is over, you'll prevail. One way or another." Cap' stood and stretched his bulky limbs. "Vegeta."

The younger of the two, looked up at him. Rarely did his old Captain ever call him by his first name.

"I know you're a realist and so am I... and tt's not that I don't have any faith in you, but this mission you're about to embark on is probably one of the most dangerous you will ever go on. If, god forbid, you don't make it... make sure you don't have any regrets."

Vegeta looked up at his old Captain, not sure what to say. Not sure what he was trying to get at.

Cap' gave Vegeta a small smile and dug in his pocket, bringing out a folded piece of paper. He gave it to Vegeta and left him on the porch.

The young assassin finished off his beer and unfolded the paper Cap' gave him. He gasped lightly at the sight of his own hand writing and he knew instantly what his friend was getting at.

_**8 years ago...**_

_Vegeta sat up in a daze, shell shocked. He looked around, trying to figure out what happened, blinking rapidly, trying to regain his vision. Bodies of his fellow soldiers laid in pieces and heaps all around him. The smoke was thick from the explosion he had just been in and there were several small fires ablaze around him. _

_The moments before he blacked out, slowly came back to him. He had narrowly dodged a rocket that was meant to kill he and his team. _

_The ringing in his ears started to fade away as he wobbled to his feet. Still slightly disoriented, he dove for cover next to a brick wall that was crumbling away from the recent fire fight._

_""Ouji!" The loud booming voice of Cap' yelled from behind. _

_Vegeta turned to see him barreling up to him, dodging bullets as his large frame dove for cover next to Vegeta. _

_"This way, Ouji." Cap' commanded as he laid low to the ground and made his way down the old brick wall, Vegeta following suit. _

_They made their way to an abandoned building that was partially in ruin. They'd be safe for a while._

_"Woo doggy, that was a close one, eh Ouji?" Cap' said taking his helmet off and rubbed the sweat off of his bald head._

_Vegeta practically fell to the ground across from his captain. His hearing had come back, but he was still feeling out of it and a little woozy for his taste. _

_"Ouji, you're not looking too good." Cap said as he stayed low to the ground and made his way to Vegeta. He looked the boy over, making sure he wasn't hit and was going into shock. _

_His eyes grew wide when he found a large shard of metal sticking out of the side of Vegeta's chest. _

_"Whoa kid. You need a medic."_

_Vegeta looked down dumbly at his side and let out a weak chuckle at the site of the large shard sticking out of him. Now that he thought of it, it was kind of uncomfortable to breathe._

_He fell backwards, his arms feeling like limp noodles, unable to sustain his weight any longer. _

_He looked to Cap' who was barking orders into the his walkie talkie, yelling for med-evac ASAP. Giving base their coordinates. _

_"They should be here in two hours." Cap' said, stuffing the radio in one of his many pockets. " You think you can hold on that long?"_

_"Yeah, sure." Vegeta said. The effects of blood lose and shell shock making him feel drunk._

_Cap' made his way over to the young soldier. "I've got morphine. It'll take the edge off until evac team gets here." He quickly injected him and then dragged Vegeta's limp body over to one of the standing walls, propping his upper body against it, and then sat down next to him._

_The minutes seemed to pass by at a very slow pace for the both of them. And as time passed, Vegeta started to reflect on life, as one may do when facing death. _

_Bulma's beautiful face smiled brightly at him in his minds eye. God he missed her. If only he could hold her just one last time. Kiss her, make love to her. A sudden wave of guilt washed over him. He'd abandoned her. She'd probably spit in his face if she ever saw him again._

_He'd had left two years ago, and thought about her often. Had she forgotten about him by now? _

_Vegeta dug into his side pocket of his camo's and took out a sandwich bag that held a neatly folded piece of paper in it. _

_"Cap'." Vegeta weakly handed it to him. "If I don't make it, I want you to give this to someone for me, ok?"_

_The captain took the baggy and looked at the young soldier. Vegeta had been in his squad for a year and a half. He was one of the best soldiers he had the pleasure of fighting side by side with._

_His nickname was 'The Robot' due to being able to show no emotion, ever. He was the best at what he did. He graduated the top of his class in boot camp. He was everything a soldier should be. The boy never missed a mark when shooting, his tactics skills were supreme and was as smart as a whip. So when the boy handed him a letter and was showing emotion, he was at a lose for words. The look in the boy's eyes were full of regret and sarrow._

_Cap' had seen this before in other soldiers. Who was near death, especially when they were heavily medicated. Emotions that they were all trained to suppress and bury deep seemed to pop up to the surface. _

_Vegeta continued. "There's an address in there. If it's possible, I want you to hand deliver it to her. Tell her..." He tried desperately to swallow the lump in his throat, and waited until he knew he a handle on his emotions to continue. "tell her that I love her. And that I never stopped loving her and that I'm sorry for leaving her... promise me Cap'." His eyes felt droopy and was trying desperately to hold onto consciousness._

_Cap' looked down at the letter in the baggy. The name 'Bulma' was written on it. He looked over to Vegeta and nodded. "I promise, boy...You'll pull through this, kid. And when you do, you can tell Bulma yourself." _

_Vegeta nodded once and gave into the morphine and passed out._

Vegeta looked down at the letter he had written all those years ago and pressed it into his palm as he made a fist.

"No regrets..." He said softly and pondered the old man's advice.


	8. Chapter 8

**Hello everyone!**

**Here's the next installment of Point Blank. =) **

**Check out Mallie-3's fan art she did of Vegeta for this fic on deviant art! Her pen name is Mallie3. Leave her a comment!**

**For those who are still in the dark regarding what this fic is loosely based off of, it's Grosse Pointe Blank. It's a fantastic movie, I love it, it's one of my favorites. Watch it! =)**

**Thank you all for the fantastic reviews! I want to apologize for not responding to your reviews. I feel like a jerk-face. If any of you have questions regarding the fic or want to start a conversation about it, feel free to PM me. I'm much better at responding to those rather than reviews. =)**

**So this chapter was originally much much longer, but I had to split it in half. The next chapter, B & V will be in a foreign country, and things are going to get really crazy for the two of them... and do I sense romance in the air? ;)**

**This chapter is un-beta'd. *sigh* Impatience has gotten the best of me... don't judge. **

**Disclaimer: I own nothing. I'm poor.**

"In other news, Capsule Corp was broken into yesterday evening. The research and development lab, coincidentally where the missing Bulma Briefs, heiress to the company, spent most of her time in was the only place where the criminal activity took place. Dr. Briefs, president of the corporation, had little to say about the theft. Only that important research material had been taken. Channel five news team also questioned Dr. Briefs about his daughter's disappearance and possible connections to would-be terrorist, Vegeta Ouji. Dr. Briefs declined to comment."

This was not something Bulma wanted to wake up to. She rubbed her face vigorously in attempt to wake up, picked her self up off of the couch and turned the TV off.

"I'm sure it was Frieza's men that broke into Capsule Corp."

Bulma turned around to see Vegeta leaning casually against the door jam of the living room with two cups of coffee in his hands. She walked up to him and took one of the cups away and took a dainty sip.

"I agree. Thankfully, if they did steal my research, it's not complete and untested." She said between sips.

"What exactly is it that you were contracted to make for him?"

"A new and better version of guns and assault rifles for the military... and ammunition. It was an exciting request, actually."

Vegeta looked at her questionably. "How so?"

"Heat seeking bullets." Bulma said quietly.

Vegeta's brows hiked and his eyes grew large. "Heat seeking, fucking bullets?"

Bulma nodded meekly. "That and a variety of other kinds." She said sheepishly. Why hadn't she informed him earlier about this? Possibly because her life was in danger and she was in shock for the past day or so.

"Like?" He growled.

"Bullets that explode upon impact and a few others." She could see Vegeta wasn't happy with the news. "Look, I thought I was developing them for the military, not for some dirty, CIA director that was going to turn around and sell it to people that hate our country." Bulma angrily spat defensively. "There's something else too..." She bit her lip. "I hade a few hundred rounds of each made for testing. I'm sure they stole the guns along with them, since I had to completely re-design them to fire off the specialized ammo."

Vegeta pinched the bridge of his nose and scrunched his eyes closed. This just kept getting shittier and shittier. Now he had to be worried about crazy ass assassins with crazy ass weaponry. "Is there anything else I should know? Did you build them a fucking nuclear bomb too? Maybe an indestructible tank?"

"No."

He opened his eyes and glared at Bulma. "Well, that's a fucking relief...FUCK!" He threw his free hand up in the air. He looked down at her and scowled fiercely at her. "Do whatever you need to do to get ready. We are going into town for a few things while Cap' is finishing up our docs. You have fifteen minutes." He growled at her and then stomped away from her.

She childishly stuck her tongue out at him and stalked to the bathroom to get ready, slamming the door behind her.

She got done quickly, since she didn't have any makeup, or a brush for that matter. She washed her face and rinsed her mouth out with mouth wash Cap had in one of the small cabinets , then stuffed her hair up in the baseball hat Vegeta had given her.

Bulma looked at her reflection in the mirror. Her lips set in a hard, straight line. Vegeta had no right to be angry with her, and if he was going to blame her for this, then he had another thing coming.

She roughly pulled on the bill of the hat, pushing it down more over her eyes and exited out of the bathroom.

She found Vegeta speaking to Cap' in low whispers outside, next to his car. When he noticed her presence, he gave her an annoyed look and turned his back on her.

She angrily looked at him and entered the car, forcefully slamming the door shut behind her. Vegeta glared disapprovingly at her through the windshield, but continued his 'secret' conversation with Cap'.

_'What a jerk!'_ She screamed mentally. It wasn't her fault she was duped by a crazy CIA agent into making powerful weaponry. Frankly, Vegeta had no right to act like a total dick. She was in the same position he was in, damn-it!

She crossed her arms and looked out her window, ignoring him as he got in wordlessly. He turned the car on and sped off down the dirt driveway and headed towards town.

In the short ten minutes it took to get to their destination, they didn't speak. Irritation radiated off of the both of them, making the atmosphere inside the black sports car palpable.

Although, Bulma understood why Vegeta was angry about the recent turn of events. Frieza having his dirty hands on her research was not good. All he had to do was have someone continue where she left off. Also, it gave she and Vegeta a horrible disadvantage.

She tried to ignore Vegeta when he would give her a dirty look or mumble something angrily under his breath. But, being a hot head herself, ignoring him didn't last long. She returned his angry gestures and mumbles with glares and angry shakes of her head. He was lucky she didn't unleash her wrath and start screaming at him at the top of her lungs, like she really wanted to.

Didn't he know this whole weapons stealing development was out of her hands? It's not like she did it on purpose! And if she knew then what she knew now, she wouldn't have agreed to take the contract in the first place.

The downtown area of wherever they were wasn't big, but was chalk full of shops. It reminded her very much of Main street at home, but this place was much more sleepy and less crowded than home.

"Woman, you have one hour." Vegeta handed Bulma a wad of cash. "Buy yourself clothes, and other necessary items for travel." He then handed her a disposable cell phone he had bought a few days ago. "If you run into trouble, call me. My number is already programmed in there. When you are finished, meet me back here. Do not be late. And keep your hat and sun glasses on." He growled at her, handing her a pair of glasses.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." She mumbled, snatching the sun glasses out of his hands and ignored the look of fury on her ex-boyfriend-now assassin's face. Bulma quickly exited the car before he could say anything in return and headed towards the shops.

XxXxXxX

45 minutes later, and $300 dollars and some change of Vegeta's cash spent, Bulma walked back to the car, shopping bags in hand. She managed to get a variety of clothing; jeans, long sleeve shirts, short sleeve shirts, shorts, sweaters, sweatshirts. She also got a comfy pair of Nikes and a pair of flats, underwear, a couple bra's, socks and sleepwear. She also purchased makeup, hair supplies, other miscellaneous toiletries and a much needed flat iron... which she wasn't sure if she should have bothered, given she would be wearing a wig most of the time.

She found Vegeta standing against his car in his normal uptight stance; arms crossed, feet shoulder width apart and a deep scowl etched upon his face.

Without saying a word, he shoved off of the car and opened the trunk of the car for Bulma to stow her purchases and then the two entered the car.

Again, he said nothing. She could tell he was still a little peeved. Well, so was she. The shopping trip only calmed her down somewhat.

"You can't be mad at me." She said sharply and took her sunglasses off to look at him.

Vegeta looked at her for a few seconds, and then returned to looking a the road ahead of him. He still had his sunglasses on, making it impossible for Bulma to decipher what he was feeling or thinking.

Her shoulders slumped when he didn't say anything.

"It's not my fault...Please talk to me." The hard edge in her voice was now gone, and it pissed her off. The anger she was feeling all morning was keeping her together. And, as hard as she was trying, she couldn't hold in her emotions anymore. Everything hit her like a ton of bricks...

Vegeta turning up out of nowhere. The old feeling that never really left her when seeing him again. The hit man in her room wanting to kill her, and almost killingher. Vegeta killing him. The shock of finding out what Vegeta did for a living... all of America thinking she was on the lamb with a supposed terrorist. The fact that the crazy asshole Frieza now had his dirty paws on her research and prototypes...

And Vegeta being angry with her for something that was completely out of her control was the straw that broke the camels back.

The dam was broken and the flood gates burst.

Bulma held her face in her hands as she started to cry, her body racked with uncontrollable sobs.

From the corner of his eyes, he saw her cradle her head in her hands.

"Fuck." Vegeta hissed under his breath.

He quickly and safely pulled the car over onto the dirt shoulder of the one lane road they were on and got out of the car, Bulma seemingly unaware of what he was doing, and walked over to her side of the car and opened the door.

He reached over and unbuckled her seatbelt. He let her limp and shaking form fall into his strong arms and cradled her, tucking her head onto his chest and softly stroked her hair and head, where her hat was only moments ago. His other arm encircled her and rubbed comforting circles on the small of her back.

Vegeta knew she was handling this far too well. Other than screaming at him a couple of night ago when he told her to calm down and having a mini breakdown the morning they left for Cap's house, she hadn't cried or had a total mental break down, like he anticipated her to... until now. Plus... he knew he was being a dick.

"P-Please don't be mad at me." She whimpered into his chest.

He shook his head. "I'm not mad at you." He said softly.

"Yes you are."

He emitted something that sounded much like a growl. "No, I'm not. I'm just..." He squeezed his eyes shut tight. It wasn't his intention to upset her. He was angry at the situation, not her. But, seeing as she was the only one around, she was the one he took it out on. "I'm mad about everything that is happening, not you."

Gently, he brushed a stray lock of blue hair behind her ear and wiped away her tears, even though they were steadily flowing out of her eyes.

This was one thing he could ever handle seeing or hearing; Bulma crying. He always felt so helpless when she did, especially if he was the one to cause it.

Bulma took a shaky breath and looked up at him. "I don't think I could handle you being mad at me right now." She said shakily, unhooking her death grip of his neck.

Vegeta loosened his hold of her and wiped away another set of tears. "I was waiting for this to happen."

She looked up at him, puzzled.

He chuckled and took her face in-between his hands. His steely black eyes looking into her heavenly blue ones. "For you to flip out. I'm quite surprised you lasted this long without throwing one of your famous Bulma Brief freak outs." A sly smirk graced his lips.

Usually that remark would have been rewarded with a slap or a rude finger gesture, but at this moment, Bulma was relieved. He wasn't mad at her, and he just cracked a joke... granite, it was at her expense. Bulma smiled weakly up at him and wiped her nose with the back of her hand.

He didn't release the hold he had on her face and used his thumbs to wipe away the rest of her tears and graced her lips with a quick kiss.. The look he usually carried in his eyes; hard, cold and calculating, was replaced with the one she'd catch him giving her, all those years ago, when he thought she wasn't paying attention or when they were having a particularly intimate moment. The look in the steely black eyes held warmth and love.

Bulma's heart melted.

But the blessed gaze vanished almost as soon as it came.

He released his hold and stood from his haunches, shaking his head as if clearing unwanted thoughts out of his brain. "We need to get back to Cap, pick up our documents and get to the airport. Our flight leaves in a few hours." His voice was his normal gravely voice, but it was much softer than before. He stood there until she acknowledged him and then walked back around to the drivers seat and took off again towards Cap's.

XxXxXxX

It turned out that while Bulma was shopping, Vegeta too made some necessary purchases. He gave Bulma one of two rolling suitcases and instructed her to pack and get her disguise on.

She did as she was told, packing all of her purchases into the medium sized roller and then put her brown contacts and long black wig on. She put some light makeup on, and fashioned the wig so it covered her blue eyebrows with the bangs. Upon looking in the mirror, she flinched. She looked like a complete stranger... which was a good thing.

Moving her head from side to side, she had to chuckle. She looked almost like ChiChi.

Seeing as they were going to be stuck on a plane for eight to ten hours, she dressed in a pair of comfy but stylish gray cotton pants and a form fitting pink shirt and a pair of running shoes... just in case they found themselves running for their lives.

When she was finished, she met the two men in the living room. Cap nodded his head at her, pleased with how her disguise looked. Vegeta merely looked at her, grunted and went back to inspecting the documents that were neatly piled on the coffee table.

It took Bulma a moment to realize that Vegeta too was wearing a wig. It was blonde, and was almost the same length of his natural hair. His eye brows too were blonde and she wondering momentarily if he went as far as dying them or if he covered them up with fake ones. He was dressed in a pair of comfy looking jeans -something she hadn't seen him wear since they were in high school- and a black, tight fitting t-shirt that hugged his muscles in all the right places. She chuckled when she saw that he was wearing running shoes, just like her. But, the chuckle abruptly stopped when she thought about it further... the moment they stepped out of Cap's home and out of the sleepy town that he lived in and into the airport... things would be a lot different. Their lives would be at risk at every moment. They would have to be alert at all times and be prepared to fight...possibly to the death.

...the very thought made Bulma's knees weak.

She looked up at Vegeta and instantly felt at ease, somewhat. The guy was as cool as a cucumber. He looked determined, calm and collected. He'd keep her safe.

"Woman." He beckoned. Motioning with his chin to come over to where they were. Vegeta handed her a passport, drivers license and two credit cards.

Bulma looked at them, the picture smiling back at her on the ID's were of the woman she looked at in the mirror just a few moments ago.

"Get used to your name. Say it out loud."

Bulma looked from Vegeta and down at her ID's again. She frowned. "Gwen Houston." She didn't like it.

"Say it again." He barked.

Bulma rolled her eyes. "Vegeta, I-"

"Say it again." He growled.

Bulma narrowed her eyes at him. "Gwen Houston."

He nodded curtly. "And, I'm not Vegeta." He smirked. "I'm Joshua Pickett" He said his new name in an English accent.

It made Bulma giggle.

"What's my name?" He asked, neatly folding the remaining documents into a manila envelope.

"Joshua Pickett."

"And yours?"

Bulma sighed heavily. "Gwen Houston."

"Good. If anyone asks, we are boyfriend and girlfriend. And we are going on vacation." He stuffed the envelope in a sleek black backpack and slung it over his shoulder. "Cap, let's get going."

Vegeta tossed the keys to his Challenger at his old friend and grabbed his rolling suitcase, leading the way outside.

XxXxXxX

She felt as if her heart was going to leap out of her throat and out of her mouth.

Was everyone staring at she and Vegeta or was she being paranoid?

They were at the airport, and she felt so... exposed. Vegeta was unarmed, which put her even more so on edge. When she aired her concern, he assured her that he was more than capable of killing and/or hindering an armed person with out a weapon. He wasn't going to risk trying to bring a fire arm through security. She'd take his word for it.

"Hey." Cap' said from the drivers seat of Vegeta's Challenger.

Vegeta bent down to look at his old friend through the open passenger side window.

"No regrets, eh, Ouji."

Vegeta glanced over at Bulma and then back to his old friend and grunted in what Cap assumed was an agreement.

The assassin gave his old Captain a half smile and started to straighten back up but then bent down again.

"You scratch my baby, and I will kill you." He said threateningly. Pointing a finger at Cap'.

Cap' laughed and rolled the window up. He promply sped off, screeching the tires.

Vegeta clenched his jaw as he watched the black sports car blur into traffic.

He turned around as he mentally decided that his car was as good as garbage now that it was in the old man's care and grabbed hold of Bulma's hand. He guided her through the busy international airport and walked straight to the counter to check into their flight.

Bulma tried to act as cool as Vegeta. Handing over her ID so the attendant could check it, along with Vegeta's. She couldn't help her hands from shaking and it made the man behind the counter raise an eyebrow at her.

"It's her first time flying." Vegeta said with a friendly smile, in his 'English' accent. Well, it wasn't a lie, she had never flown before and it added to her distress.

The attendant nodded and smiled brightly at her and gave them back their respective ID's and finished checking in their luggage.

They moved through security with surprising ease and were now making their way to their gate.

Vegeta was growing impatient with her. She kept looking over her shoulder and was down right jumpy. At this rate, airport security had every right to detain her for her suspicious behavior.

"You need to loosen up." Vegeta whispered roughly into her ear.

Loosen up? How could she just loosen up? She felt as if she and Vegeta stuck out like sore thumbs, even though they were in disguises. Her frazzled nerves were starting to get the best of her. Paranoid was what she was feeling.

Vegeta rolled his eyes at her and steered her over to a sports bar right next to their gate. He sat her on a bar stool and went up to a bar and ordered. He came back with four shot glasses. He placed two of them in front of her.

"Liquid courage...Drink." He ordered and picked one of his glasses up and waited for her to do the same.

Hesitantly, she picked the shot glass up and sniffed it. Whatever it was, it smelled strong. It made her nose flare with irritation from the harsh fumes.

"Drink." He said again, raising his eyebrows, giving her a stern look.

She knew that look. There was no getting out of this. Bulma blew the air out of her lungs and quickly threw the drink back. The liquid was warm and it stung her throat and chest as it made its way down. She couldn't help it when her shoulders quivered, a reflex from the strong alcohol.

He followed suit and knocked back his own shot. Vegeta then pushed the second shot glass over to her. "Again."

Bulma looked at him, silently telling him that she didn't want another. But he pushed it closer to her and she knew that in the end she wouldn't win. She quickly threw back the second glass. This time it didn't burn as much as it went down.

Vegeta pushed the last shot glass in front of her. "Last one."

"That's yours. I already had two, you had one."

"I'm glad you can do simple math. I don't need this as much as you do." He placed the shot glass directly in front of her.

Bulma leaned back in her seat, tossing her nose up in the air. "No."

"If you don't drink, I will make you." He growled. "You know I will."

She clenched her jaw and glared at him. "Fine." She held her irate glare on him, making sure he knew her displeasure and took the last shot.

Vegeta smirk slightly. "Was that so hard?"

"Screw you, _Joshua_." She sneered his fake name.

"Now, now Gwen." He mocked in his accent. "I don't need you causing a fuss and making things difficult for the both of us." His smirk grew large. "Come." He hopped off of the bar stool and waited for her to follow.

"Your accent makes you sound gay." She quipped.

Vegeta gave her a semi amused look and bent down so his lips were grazing her ear. "Oh, baby," He whispered, almost seductively. "You of all people know I'm am the furthest thing from being gay."

Bulma's cheeks flooded with color. Her stomach felt as if it had hundreds of butterflies in it, and her lower belly clenched when she felt his hot breath on her ear.

_'Now's not the time, Bulma._' She scolded herself.

She cleared her throat and carefully stepped down, instantly she felt looser. Whatever Vegeta made her drink was definitely strong. And, in this case, she appreciated that she was such a light weight. Begrudgingly, she was thankful that Vegeta made her take the shots.

Vegeta grabbed hold of her, pulling his arm around her shoulders and guided her to check in, yet again, and get their boarding pass.

This time when she handed the attendant her ID and ticket, her hands didn't shake. Success!

After obtaining their boarding passes, they had about a half hour until they were able to board the plane.

"Here." Vegeta said taking a seat in one of the many chairs in the waiting area. She sat down and watched as Vegeta dug into his backpack. He produced an iPod and handed it to her along with a pair of ear buds. "I copied my music library and movies onto this one."

For some reason, he blushed when he handed the device over to her.

She smiled warmly at him. "Thanks, Vegeta."

"It's yours. I got it this morning while you were shopping. This will keep you entertained during the flight...and out of my hair." His voice was clipped and he didn't wait for her to respond. He stuffed his own earbuds in his ears and turned his music on that was stored in his iPhone.

XxXxXxX

The flight was not full, and for that both Bulma and Vegeta were thankful. Even better, the plane was large, there where three rows, the middle seating three across and the side sitting two across.

Vegeta chose for them, giving Bulma a window seat, that way they avoided sharing a seat with anybody else.

After a few minutes, the plane started to move towards the runway. Bulma gripped Vegeta's arm as it jolted forward, gaining speed, a mere ten miles an hour.

The buzz from the shots Vegeta made Bulma clearly was not enough. She wasn't too keen on the plane moving and just thinking about the metal tube actually taking off into the air was making her tense up and hyperventilate slightly.

As the plane taxied the run way one of the flight attendants asked if they would like a refreshment.

Vegeta took one look at Bulma and then at the death-grip she had on his arm and asked for two gin and tonics.

The woman came back almost instantaneity with two plastic cups full of alcohol. Vegeta handed the woman money and shoved one of the drinks in Bulma's hands.

"Drink it."

He didn't have to tell her twice. She slugged it back within seconds and snatched the other that Vegeta was about to drink out of, and finished that one off too.

Vegeta rose an irritated eyebrow at her.

"How in the bloody hell does this thing get off of the ground and stay in the air?"

"Aren't you supposed to be some sort of genius?" He scoffed.

She rolled her eyes at him.

"You'll survive, Woman. Let alcohol do it's job."

Bulma took a deep calming breath and settled in her seat. She listened intently to one of the flight attendants on the PA system that explained how to properly work your seat belt and what to do in case of an emergency as another demonstrated.

Once the safety speech was complete, the two gin and tonics had taken effect. Bulma didn't even notice as the plane sped up and took to the air.

Vegeta turned to her as the plane took flight, a small, knowing smirk on his lips. "I told you, liquid courage."

"Yeah, yeah." She waived a dismissive hand at him. She ignored his cocky look and put the ear buds in her ears and hit shuffle.

A soft classical song came started to play. She closed her eyes and drifted to sleep.

They had been in the air for a few hours now and he was quite thankful that Bulma had fallen asleep shortly after they took off. They were experiencing turbulence. He really didn't think she would be able to handle it, liquid courage or no.

Her head was resting on his shoulder and was hugging his arm tightly.

Vegeta took a break from studying blue prints of a few buildings he requested Eighteen to send to him, via his iPhone, and watched Bulma sleep. Even though she was in disguise, her blue hair covered beneath the black wig, she still took his breath away. She was beautiful. She was also very vulnerable, he wouldn't get go so far to say she was weak. Bulma Briefs was anything but weak.

Vulnerable not weak.

It made Vegeta shudder. He would have to fix that.

Possibly teach her how to shoot properly and wield a weapon, a blade perhaps. He wanted her to be ready for anything, just in case something happened to him. He wanted to know that she could defend herself and have a fighting chance.

He brushed her hair out of her face and smiled softly when she whimpered and snuggled closer into him.

With one last look at his ex-girlfriend, he went back to studying and memorizing each exit, air duct and room on the blue prints, coming up with a game plane. They would have to be ready when they landed in Zurich.

He was expecting company when they landed.

**Oh Snap.**


	9. Chapter 9

**My sincere apologies for the delay. I've been having one hellava month. I've been sick, my kids have been sick, I had to go in for a few MRI's (which, I might add, are no fun) and am meeting with a surgeon tomorrow to see what they can do for my knee, cuz it has no functionality anymore. SOOOO that is why it is taking FOREVER for me to update anything right now.**

**But I want to tell all of my readers that I have no intention of ditching any of my stories. For those of you reading and patiently waiting for me to update DL Book 2, it's coming along and I will hopefully have a nice long chapter for you all soon.**

**Thank you for all of the fantastic reviews, I love you all. Reviewers and ghost readers alike.**

**Not beta'd.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing. **

Bulma woke up some hours later. The cabin was dark, save for a few overhead lamps and the only noise heard were the random mumblings and snores from the other passengers.

She was relaxed, even though the alcohol had long since burned out of her system. Her eyes slowly opened and found that she was hugging Vegeta's muscle encased arm and her cheek was pressed up against is shoulder.

She started to move her head away, but felt, rather than saw, Vegeta's head resting on top of her and heard the low rumbles of snores coming from him.

Bulma smiled. She relaxed and snuggled into Vegeta, relishing the close contact with him, knowing full well that if he were awake, this would not be happening right now. Glancing down at her watch, she saw it was midnight. They'd be landing in a couple of hours.

Instead of waking him, especially since she was sure he needed all the rest he could get, Bulma stretched her arm over to the pouch in front of her seat and fetched her brand new ipod and earbuds, complements of Vegeta.

Unlocking it, she shifted through the screens. There weren't many apps on there, just a few games and the applications the iPod came with. She slipped the earbuds on without moving her head, making sure to keep as still as possible, and started to go through the music library... which was extensive.

Curious, she flipped to the lists of play-lists and saw that those too had been copied to her library as well from Vegeta's. He had a lot. Her eyes scanned down the list; Work Out play-list, Sleep Play-list, Kill play-list -she wasn't sure if she wanted to hear what was on that one- and one titled 'Drive'. But the play-list at the very bottom titled **'Bulma'** made her gasp.

The sound of the sharp intake of air made Vegeta shift , but he remained asleep.

When she knew he wasn't going to wake, she tapped the screen and the titles of the list popped up.

Amber by 311

Bitter Sweet Symphony by The Verve

Cosmic Love by Florence + the machine

Crash into Me by The Dave Mathews Band

Down by Blink 182

The list went on and on and each song had some meaning or another. Some of them were songs that both of them listened to back when they were together. The more recent one's were sweet and were about love, frustration, hardships and mending broken hearts.

It was a simple and sweet gesture that spoke volumes.

Her inner fears of him not feeling the way he before he left all of those years ago melted away. She knew how complicated Vegeta was, and even more so now since they've reunited. There was hope for the two of them... maybe after this situation blew over, just maybe the future held something for the both of them.

But the question was, was this meant to be seen by her? Or did he purposefully add it to her iPod?

Either way, she'd be patient... or at least try to be.

XxXxXxX

Vegeta tugged at her arm, pulling her to his side. She looked at him, annoyed, but knew better and kept her mouth shut, and tried to keep up with his fast stride as he continued to drag her to baggage claim.

He scanned his surroundings carefully. He and Bulma's disguises would buy them some time, but not much. They needed to grab their luggage and get to the bank before he was noticed.

Luckily their bags where one of the first to be offloaded and were swiftly yanked from the carousel by Vegeta. Thankful that his hands were full and not able to nearly rip her arm out of it's socket again, she followed him outside while rubbing her soar hand. It was late afternoon, and the weather was pleasant. Not too hot and not too cold... although, Vegeta had warned her that it would get a little chilly when night fell.

A cab screeched to a halt in front of them and Vegeta tossed their luggage into the trunk and they both piled into the car. He barked out their destination in Swiss-German. The driver nodded at him through the rear view mirror and took off, dodging traffic and pedestrians coming in and out of the airport.

Bulma followed Vegeta's instructions before they exited the plane.

_"Try hard not to speak while we are out in highly public places. Not until I find out if we are wanted here too. If someone asks you a question, ignore them." _

It was quite hard for her to bite her tongue, but she did. She distracted herself and looked out the window and watched the sites as they whizzed by taking in the beauty and the pureness of the city.

Zurich was beautiful and if it weren't their situation, she'd be begging Vegeta to take her out site seeing... which reminded her... When they got to Paris, she was going to go to the Eiffel Tower. She didn't care if she was wanted by the CIA, FBI and whoever else dammit!

Bulma rubbed her eyes gingerly. Her eyes were itchy from the contacts. She was on her second set, but her virgin eyes were rebelling against them... that and her wig was itching her like crazy. She couldn't wait to take it off. She shifted to glance at Vegeta, who was staring intently at his Iphone screen that was displaying blue prints... the same blue prints he had studied from the time he woke up on the plane to when they landed.

When she asked him about it, he simply said it was recon, nothing to worry about. But, she knew better. Bulma watched as he memorized each and every exit, air duct and room in the very large building and, in doing so, she too memorized the prints. Although, she wasn't too sure what or where this building was.

The cab ride took them deep into Zurich. The deeper they went, the more posh the surroundings got and the traffic got a little more thick as well. She spied Louie Vuitton, Chanel and Tiffany & co shops and had to suppress the squeal of delight that almost escaped her lips.

Vegeta gave her a sideways look and rolled his eyes at her. He knew very well what she was looking at and was thankful they were in a hurry and that their lives were in danger, otherwise he'd be trapped in shopping hell.

They stopped in front of a very large and very beautiful building. It was at least twenty stories high and every third floor, large white marble gargoyles were perched at the corners. In large blue lettering 'BANK of ZURICH' was splayed at the entrance.

Vegeta tossed a few bills at the driver and got out of the cab. Bulma followed suit and helped him get their luggage out of the trunk and wheeled them into the bank.

They were immediately met at the door by a tall, blonde man in a very expensive three piece suite. He said something in Swedish-German to the two of them.

Bulma smiled back at him, not understanding a thing the man said while Vegeta nodded at him and said something back to him in the same language.

The man perked up at whatever Vegeta said and smiled brightly at him. "Welcome back, Mr. Pickett." His English was very broken, but understandable. "Please, follow me, I will gladly take you to the where you need to be."

Vegeta nodded curtly at him and then looked to Bulma, motioning with his chin to follow.

The man led the way into the lavish building and entered an even more lavish elevator that had a very plush looking bench seat. Why anyone thought you needed to sit down in an elevator was beyond her. Tall and blonde hit a succession of buttons making the elevator go down... way down.

When the doors opened, Tall and Blonde ushered the two of them into a small lobby and then through a thick metal door that then led to a very, very large corridor. If she wasn't sure then, she was very sure now that they were deep underground. The walls were rock, giving it a modern bat-cave feel to it. It was well lit and had comfy looking chairs lining the walls every few feet or so. They then went through another door, which looked to be a sturdy circular safe door and inside sat a bank of hundreds and hundreds of safe deposit boxes in various shapes and sizes.

"Which box will you want to open to day, Mr. Pickett."

"Box number 501."

"One moment, I will get it for you."

Tall and Blonde scurried away and returned just a few moments later with a small key.

"I will be outside the room, shall you need anything." He bowed his head slightly at Vegeta and smiled at Bulma. "Madam."

Vegeta waited until the overly nice banker left the area and went straight to his box. He quickly removed it from the bank and took it to a large cubby that held a desk and two chairs, complete with a curtain for privacy.

The two of them entered and closed the curtain.

"Open my suit case, Woman." Vegeta said as he slid the key into the hole, turned and opened the box.

Bulma did as she was told and then looked at the box. Her eyes nearly bugged out their sockets. The box was at least 20 inches long and 15 inches wide. The depth, Bulma assumed was about 10 inches deep and was filled the brim with money.

"Give me your ID." He ordered.

She gave him an annoyed look. "Please?"

Vegeta glared at her and set his jaw.

"Okay, okay, jeesh." She reached into her bag and retrieved her ID and handed it to him. He then grabbed the manila folder that held Cap's documents and a small leather satchel out of his backpack. "Start unloading the money into my suit case. I've got some business to take care of."

"Yes master." She replied under her breath.

He growled at her remark and exited the privacy of the cubby.

Bulma went straight to work. She stuffed the stacks of one hundred dollar bills into his half filled bag. From her quick calculations, he had roughly $300,000 in cash.

When she was nearly done, Vegeta came back in, this time with a piece of paper and a pen.

"Here." He slid the paper to her on the table top, along with the pen.

Bulma set the remaining two stacks of one-hundreds into the suit case and peered down a the paper. It was in Swiss-German and at the bottom had a space where it looked like a signature was needed.

"What is this?"

Vegeta sat down at the table, his hard, steely look he had on ever since they got off of the plane was now replaced with the rare, caring look he'd give her at times. "I've added you onto my account. This is a," He paused as if searching for the right words. "...just in case kind of thing."

Bulma shook her head, not grasping what he was saying.

"In case things go to shit in four weeks, I want you to come back here. I've left you money and other things to help you start a new life. You won't be able to go back home if I don't make it and clear our names. I want to make sure you are taken care of." The last sentence was just above a whisper and he was now looking at the wall to the left of him.

Bulma sat frozen, staring at him, her mouth opening and closing but her words died in her throat. What a completely morbid but absolutely sweet thought.

Vegeta grew uncomfortable at the way she looked at him and shifted in his seat when he saw the tears that were forming in the corners of her big blue eyes. She quickly walked around the small table and sunk to her knees in front of the assassin, and hugged him tightly around his waist. The tears were flowing freely now, his thin black shirt was soaked within moments.

He awkwardly looked down at her and slowly brought his arms around her shoulders, rubbing the backs of them in small comforting circles.

"Why are you crying." He asked in a whisper. _'I thought we were done with the crying.'_

She shook her head and sniffled. "The gesture is completely sweet and unnecessary." She chuckled through her tears. "We will prevail. So this isn't necessary." She repeated. "You won't die, I won't allow it."

He pried her death grip of his waist and grabbed her chin, gingery, bringing it up so she was looking up at him. He didn't say anything, just smiled warmly at her.

Bulma took a deep breath and gave him one last hug and stood up, wiping the remaining tears from her cheeks and eyes. Vegeta handed her the pen.

"I am the best assassin in the world." He said cockily. "No body can kill me... but I still want you to sign it."

Bulma took a shaky intake of air, ridding herself of the tears and took the pen from him and signed the paper. She was proud that she remembered to sign it in her fake name.

As she handed the paper back, she gave him a determined look. "You may be the worlds best assassin, but I know for a fact, that you are a big softy inside of that arrogant, cocky, hard headed, foul mouthed shell."

Vegeta took the document from her and smirked. "Come on." He zipped his luggage up. "We are on barrowed time. Got to get to base."

Luggage in hand, they exited the cubby and was met by Mr. Tall and Blonde. Vegeta handed the signed document to him and watched the man scan over it and looked up at the two of them iwith a please smile.

"Everything seems to be in order. All five of your boxes and accounts are now joint owned." He turned to Bulma. "Congratulations Mrs. Pickett, Mr. Pickett."

Bulma flinched with surprise and confusion, but quickly smiled back at him. Vegeta nodded at him and grabbed hold of her hand and led her to the elevator.

"Mrs. Pickett?" She questioned.

Vegeta grumbled under his breath. He knew she caught that.

"Yes, it's the only way I could at you at co-owner of my accounts and boxes... don't get any ideas."

"Me? Ideas? Never." She said, holding her hand over her heart in mock hurt.

Once out of the elevator, Vegeta led them out of the large, grand bank and onto the bustling streets of Zurich.

"This is too easy." Vegeta said under his breath as he looked up and down the streets.

"Huh?"

He shook his head at her and continued to look and ignored her. "Come."

Still gripping her hand, the two of them walked a few blocks, their destination was unknown to Bulma.

Vegeta kept silent, obviously in deep thought and kept his surveillent eye open for any trouble. He had to get out of Zurich and to base where he'd feel more comfortable and out of the public eye. It set his teeth on edge when the remaining men of the Ginyu Force wasn't there to greet he and the woman at the airport. If they did, at least then, he'd know they were there and he could either kill them or know where they were. But this whole being-in-the-dark thing was not his thing. But then again, maybe he and the woman lucked out and they were still under the radar with Frieza and his dumb ass men, along with the CIA.

Soon, they found themselves in a very large parking garage, that housed a mess of vehicles. Vegeta led Bulma through the maze of cars, until he halted next to a black Range Rover. It was sleek and expensive looking.

He dug keys out of his pockets and hit the unlock button on the FOB. The door unlocked with a soft 'pop'. Vegeta took Bulma's luggage from her and tossed his and hers into the back and hopped into the drivers seat, where Bulma was waiting for him in the passenger bench seat.

"So... are we barrowing this car or is it actually yours?"

Vegeta started the engine and took off, heading towards the exit of the garage.

"It's mine."

Bulma nodded her head thoughtfully. "Do you own other cars in various parts of the world?"

He shook his head as he turned onto the busy streets of Zurich, heading north towards the mountains. "No. This is where I go when I want to relax... which isn't that often. I have a cottage in the outskirts of town. The only person that know of this place is Eighteen, although," He paused, not sure if he should tell her his assumptions of them running into trouble, but shrugged and continued. "I was expecting the Ginyu Force to find out and intercept us." He glanced at her, making sure she wasn't about to flip out again.

She was seemingly calm and looked at him expectantly to continue.

He sighed. "But I assume this location is still safe, for now. The faster we get out of town and into the country the better. It's off the grid and very hidden." He smirked. "And we can finally get these damned wigs off too."

She smiled at that. The damn thing was driving her to the brink of insanity with the itching.

XxXxXxX

After stopping off at a small market to purchase food and other minor supplies, they were off again.

Vegeta wasn't kidding when he said it was well hidden and off the grid. The drive reminded her of the drive into Caps'... except the scenery was much more beautiful then the dusty farm country he lived in.

Wild flowers of different colors were everywhere on the side of the road as well as overgrown greenage that lined the road that eventually turned into a one lane, dirt road, just as their journey to Cap's did. They climbed a mountain in the beefy Range Rover, which Vegeta eventually had to put into 4x4 to get up it.

They rode for about an hour until the road flattened and was greeted by a stone wall that seemed to be as old as Methuselah. It was crumbling in some spots, but it added to the charm of the medium cobble stone courtyard behind it and a rather cute looking cottage it surrounded. The cottage was old, but well kept. Outside the short stone wall that surrounded the small home was a large meadow that the home was smack in the middle of. Off in the distance there was a brook that ran the length of the cottage and even more wild flowers that were everywhere.

It was beautiful... and so not what she had thought Vegeta would come to, to relax. When he kept calling this place 'base' she inwardly cringed as she envisioned a small shack in the middle of the woods with no working plumbing and a tarp roof. Not some breath taking home that was the essence of serene.

They both exited the car, and she diligently waited outside so Vegeta could make sure there weren't any un-welcome quests inside.

When he gave her the all clear, she entered with her suit case and explored what would be her home for the next two weeks.

Once entering the cottage, to her immediate right there was the kitchen. It was a decent size... an old fashion gas powered stove and a modern fridge took up most of the space. A kitchen table that sat two was off to the side next to two large windows that overlooked the brook.

Straight ahead was a sitting area, with furniture. Although she wasn't sure what kind, as it was covered with large white sheets to keep the dust and whatnot off of it. Through the sitting area was a hallway, which she started to go down, as did Vegeta. A quaint bathroom was to the left. In it was an old fashioned toilet with a pull chain flusher, a porcelain sink and a matching bathtub, no shower.

She looked to Vegeta, raising her eyebrow at the tub and then continued down the hallway to the only other door there was.

Peeking in, there was a queen sized bed, also covered with a white sheet, as was a chest dresser and a bench seat that sat under a large bay window that overlooked the mountain.

"Wow." She breathed and turned to Vegeta. "This is," She looked around and out the window. "for lack of a better word, beautiful."

Vegeta stepped forward, away from the door jam and stood next to her by the window and peered out of it as well. The sun was setting, and the rays were bouncing off of the clouds making beautiful pink and orange hues reflect off of the sky. It truly was peaceful up here.

"Hn." He grunted, agreeing with her and looked to her as she looked out at the view. He felt guilty but a little piece of him was happy she was stuck with him for the next few weeks. The assassin watched as she took her wig off, tossing it onto the covered bed and scratched her scalp vigorously. The wretched brown contacts were long gone, as she took them off during the trek to the cottage, which pleased him. He loved her large blue eyes, it complimented her beautiful face and added to her natural beauty.

Bulma turned to him and cocked her head to the side, giving him a small but playful smile. "Let's get that off of you, goldilocks." She closed the gap between them and reached for his hair. Their eyes locked with one another and she proceeded to tug lightly on the blonde wig. On the second tug, the wig popped off and his black hair sprang out. She tossed the wig onto the bed next to hers.

She giggled at him.

"What?" He asked throatily.

"You look funny with your natural hair and blonde eyebrows.

He hrmphed at her and proceeded to let her carefully peel them off of him one at a time. He nearly shuttered each time her hands came into contact with his face, they were soft and gentle, unlike his, that were calloused and had many peoples figurative blood on them.

After the last eyebrow was peeled, Bulma looked into his steely black eyes and couldn't help the mooshy, tingly feeling that radiated all over her body with the look she was receiving from him. He was drop dead sexy, and she had to admit, once you got over the killings and black ops shit, him being an assassin was actually quite a turn on. She bit her lip and continued to hold his gaze.

The urge to kiss him was overpowering and she couldn't help it any longer. She needed to feel his lips on hers, his hands, his arms... and maybe another appendage or two.

She slowly started to lean forward into his chest and lifted her chin up. Her pouty lips slightly puckered as she went in for a kiss.

Vegeta's eyes widened as he watched her come in for the kill.

He leaned back and held her at arms length. "Uhm." He cleared his throat and backed away from her even more, letting go of her shoulders. "We have groceries we need to bring in, and I need to get the generator going so we'll have power." He quickly turned on his heel and exited the room, leaving Bulma wide eyed.

She watched him leave and shook her head, as she listened to his angry growls that sounded down the hall.

XxXxXxX

Vegeta stomped outside and over to the shed next to the cottage. He tore the wooden door open, nearly ripping it off of it's hinges in his self induced rage.

Why did he back away from her?

"Because your a panzy ass fool." He muttered to himself.

Tearing off the old drop cloth that covered the small but powerful generator and checked the gas. Seeing it was nearly empty he stomped outside to the car, muttering under his breath.

Bulma, who was unloading the food from the Range Rover, cocked an eyebrow at him but said nothing. She was too embarrassed to ask if he was OK. The near kiss and rejection of said 'almost' kiss made it awkward.

Vegeta snatched a gas can from the back of the SUV, avoiding all eye contact with her and headed back to the shed.

She watched him stalk off. Her shoulders slumped as did her heart. If her hands weren't full of grocery bags, she would have done a face palm.

_'What happened to being patient, Bulma?_' She asked herself. _'Great job, jerk. You scared him off!'_

With a heavy sigh, she proceeded to the kitchen to put the food away and to make dinner.

XxXxXxX

It took a good few tugs, but the generator roared to life after the fifth pull on the cord. Vegeta sat in the shed and calmed himself. At first he was angry at the Woman... but knew he was being illogical in being angry with her. She was acting on emotion, something he hadn't done in quite a while, he couldn't blame her for that.

The root problem, he knew, was that he was afraid. Something that he didn't want to admit to himself. But he was. He was afraid of what would happen in the next few weeks. Afraid for both he and Bulma's lives, and afraid of the future. It was unknown, and Vegeta wasn't a huge fan of the unknown.

Cap's words suddenly popped into his mind.

_"No regrets, eh, Ouji?"_

Well, this was his chance. Especially if he might die trying to keep the two of them alive and clear their name, he wanted to die with a clear conscience, with no regrets.

XxXxXxX

The food was put away and Bulma was now preparing a simple pasta dish for the two of them.

It wasn't going too well for the heiress. She was having the damndest time trying to light the gas stove... She had gone through at least seven lit matches and burnt herself four times trying to light the pilot.

"Son of a bitch" She said through gritted teeth as she lit the eighth match.

Two strong arms encircled her, making her yelp and drop the match, making the flame go out.

"Woman, you are wasting all of my matches." Vegeta's deep throaty voice chuckled and tugged the match box from her hand and lit another one, all the while keeping Bulma encircled between his arms, his hard chest pressed up against her back.

She was blushing furiously and watched as he lit the pilot light on the stove on his first try.

"Wasteful wench."

She heard his smirk in his comment and rolled her eyes at him.

"It's not my fault you have an ancient stove." She grumbled.

"Hmph."

The warmth from his hold vanished as he backed away from her and sat down at the small kitchen table.

Bulma turned around and dipped her head, trying to hide her deep blush from him and knotted her fingers together. She was still embarrassed about the almost kiss and that she had caused awkwardness between them. She peeked up and saw that he was watching her intently and flushed even more.

She quickly filled a large pot up with water and placed it on the burner that was lit, compliments of Vegeta. Not able to keep it in any longer, she turned and asked; "Why did you back away from me when I was about to kiss you?"

His stare turned stone like and he crossed his arms. "Woman, come and sit." He commanded.

She did as she was asked and sat across from him, preparing herself for rejection.

"I think it's time I tell you." He kept his eye on her as her head popped up and looked at him with surprise.

Vegeta proceeded to tell her about the day of prom and what had happened with he and his father and how he nearly killed him with a broken beer bottle. How he then knew that he had to get out West City and more importantly, away from her to keep her safe from himself. He told her how he joined the army in the next town over and excelled in being a soldier that he caught the eye of the CIA.

He told her about his first missions, skimming over the more gory details and now he had lost his love for the job and wants to get out of the business.

Vegeta finished with the story of he and Cap and how he nearly died. He told her how he gave Cap a letter addressed to her and what he instructed Cap' to tell her if he died.

Her eyes were shimmering with fresh tears. He had most certainly gone through a lot... But something was bothering her.

"You could have told me, Vegeta." She sniffled and wiped her nose with the back of her hand. "I would have been there for you."

"No." He growled and quickly took a deep breath. "Our lives were going in completely different paths. If I would have told you, you have talked me out of it. I do not regret leaving. I needed to. Joining the army and becoming an assassin was something that I needed to do." He sighed again, and uncrossed his arms. "The only thing that I regret was leaving you the way I did. I saw your face the night of prom when I didn't show up... I broke your heart. You were the last person that I wanted to hurt. But it was the only way."

Bulma nodded her head slowly. She understood what he was saying, she didn't like it, but she understood.

"Do you still love me?"

Ah, yes the million dollar question. He ran a hand through his thick black spikes, trying to hide the panic that was threatening to make itself known.

"Because, I still love you." She continued. "I don't think I ever stopped loving you Vegeta." She watched him as he stared blankly back at her.

He remained silent.

Her sadness turned into anger. He had spent the better half of an hour explaining his life journeys to her and in not so many words, pretty much told her he still cared for her. Why was he claming up now?

"God Vegeta!" She stood up suddenly, almost knocking over her chair. "Just answer the damned question! Yes you love me or no you don't!" She waived her hands in the air, showing her frustrations and when he continued to stare at her in that stupid, passive stare she stamped her foot on the ground, growled and twirled around, exiting the kitchen.

She didn't get too far, as she was seized by the hips, turned around and was greeted by Vegeta's lips crashing onto hers. She immediately granted him access to her mouth, letting him give her the most passionate kiss in the history of kisses.

When they both had to break away for oxygen, Vegeta smirked down at her.

"Does that answer your question?"

Bulma, still dazed, nodded her head and squealed as she felt him lift her up off the ground and took her to the bedroom.

**Yes! They are finally together! Which you know will pose a problem for Vegeta, as the protectiveness will surely make both their livese difficult. **

**Next chapter shall be a lemon. bow chika wow wow. **


	10. Chapter 10

**Hey guys! First off, I want to tell you all I started at Twitter account for my fics. There, I'll keep you updated on what I'm working on and would love to hear from you. Follow me (at sign) bluescientist00 If I don't get many followers, I'll just delete it. But if I get a decent amount I'll keep it =)**

**I would like to thank all of my reviewers and readers! You all rock!**

**And special thanks to springandbysummerfall for beta'ing this bad boy for me! You are the best! Also, check out her B/V fics. They are super awesome!**

**Warning: There's a slight lemon and of course cursing. Also, I'm going a little Tarentino on all of ya'll in this chapter... fyi.**

**DISCLAIMER: I own NOTHING!**

* * *

A mixture of tears and Vegeta's blood ran down her face as she tried desperately not to fall again. Her wobbly legs threatened to give out as she pushed herself to get to her destination.

Bulma yelped as she almost fell face first onto the hard forest ground, but managed to catch herself, landing on her hands. Her already cut palms stung as they hit the freezing forest floor. She held in a horrified scream as she heard another round of shots ring out in the near distance.

**'RUN BULMA**!' Vegeta's pain filled voice screamed at her over and over again. His bloodied face still looking at her in her minds eye. **'Run, and don't look back!'**

She wiped her eyes and continued running, but paused moments later when an explosion ripped through night air. Bulma whipped around, her eyes large with horror as she watched a humongous fire ball shoot up into the sky.

"Oh my god." She whispered, another set of tears ran down her cheeks, washing away her boyfriends blood as it cascaded down her face. It took all she could not to crumple up into a ball where she stood. But the gruff words of Vegeta kept telling her to move her feet and get to where she would be safe.

With one last look at the dissipating fireball she turned away and started to run again to the little village down the mountain, where Vegeta promised her he'd meet up with her.

She ran as fast as she could for what seemed like forever. She ran until she saw lights of the small town that he promised her she'd find if she kept running East. She halted just before the forest ended and where the town started. She quickly slung Vegeta's back pack off, and tore out his black hooded sweatshirt and put it on, covering up her tattered and gore covered night shirt. She then walked to the stream of water that she had followed and splashed her face, washing off the dirt, grime and blood off, and then as calmly as she could, walked out onto the paved road that led to the heart of the town Vegeta had instructed her to go to.

She followed the lone road until it stopped in the middle small town, blending in with all of the townspeople and tourists as they went about their late evening business. She was thankful that she had woken up and put on a pair of black yoga pants and was lucky her running shoes were so close to her when Vegeta had woken her earlier, otherwise she would have made her trek barefoot.

It didn't take her long to find the small hotel she was instructed to find and quickly ducked in, making sure she wasn't followed.

A young man working the front desk smiled warmly at her, but as she got closer, his smile faded, and was replaced with a look of concern. As she approached, he asked something in Swedish.

Assuming he asked what she needed, she nodded. "Umm...Raum für ein...?" She was sure she asked for a room for one, but wasn't 100%. She had tried to pick up a little while listening to Vegeta talk to the locals, but she didn't have a good feel for it.

"Are you American?" The young man asked in a thick Swedish accent.

Bulma nodded sheepishly.

"I speak English. Room for one, yes?"

"Yes, please. Uhm... my... um, husband should be meeting up with me later on, possibly not until tomorrow morning." Bulma informed him nervously.

"Not a problem Miss. The going rate is $45 American dollars a night."

Bulma dug into Vegeta's backpack and took out some of the money he had stashed, for probably this very reason. She handed him a fifty and told him to keep the change.

"Your room number is 504... do you need anything else?"

Bulma shook her head and took the room key from him. "I've had a rough day. Nothing a bath can't fix." She lied.

His smile returned at her explanation. "Enjoy your stay."

Bulma went straight to her room. She checked it, just in case there was somebody waiting for her there, and when she felt safe she dropped the backpack on the floor.

She stood in the middle of the room, blankly staring at the large bed that dominated the room.

She was in desperate need of a shower. She was wet and tired and had a few minor scrapes and other wounds to tend to. But, she just couldn't make herself move anymore. She looked at the digital clock on the night stand.

7:54pm.

Vegeta told her to get to the neighboring town and check into the hotel she was currently in. From there she was to wait until 8am tomorrow morning. If he wasn't there by then, she was to go back to Zurich Bank and open box number 55. There she would find a new identity and enough money to start a new life. A life where Vegeta was no more, a life alone.

The thought was unbearable. She slowly sunk to the floor, pushing her back against the bed and hung her head in her hands and promptly started to sob.

He had to survive. He just had to.

* * *

**Earlier that evening...**

Bulma panted as she arched her back, pushing herself so Vegeta went deeper into her core. He groaned at the delicious sensation as he held her close, refusing to let her go. They rocked in unison, both taking the time to rediscover one another.

"Vegeta." Bulma whispered as he started to pick up his pace.

It was their third go that night, the two barely giving the other enough time to catch their breath in between rounds.

Bulma was shocked to find that Vegeta was even more muscled than his 16 year old version. His body was a powerful weapon and he had picked up a few tricks along the way. He was every bit the dominate male in bed, and they fought to win dominance over one another, just like before.

She managed to break free of his strong hold, only because he let her, she pushed him on his back and copied his eager pace, building both of their releases.

Grabbing hold of her hips he lifted his pelvis up, filling her fully. He felt her ascent in her release and grabbed hold of her, flipping her back onto the mattress where he drove into her wildly. Within seconds she orgasmed loudly, and shortly after he followed.

Vegeta dramatically fell on top of her and kissed her, making her giggle. They stayed there like that, their legs and arms entangled until Bulma fell asleep.

Once Vegeta was sure she wasn't going to wake up, he untangled himself from her and got up and out of the bed. He quietly dragged one of the chairs by the wall over next to the bed and sat. He was completely relaxed, and would have fallen asleep if he would have allowed himself to, but wanted to think things over.

His hardened soldier/assassin mind set was making him uneasy. He had just lain with a woman, his long lost woman... three times... and he was actually experiencing joy. Pure joy and happiness. It was a foreign emotion for him. Sure, he experienced joy while performing job duties... there wasn't anything in the world that made him happier than hell driving a blade through an asshole's carotid artery or shooting an evil dictator in between the eyes. But this... this joy and happiness was a horse of a different color.

'What now?' He asked himself, as he watched Bulma shift under the heavy blankets.

_'No regrets, eh, Ouji_?' Cap's words rang through his head.

He nodded in agreement, as if his old Captain was sitting next to him.

"No regrets." He whispered and smiled.

* * *

Someone was is the kitchen.

The faint steps of rubbers soles penetrated Vegeta's sleep.

He kept his eyes shut and concentrated on the noise, all the while keeping his protective hold on the sleeping woman, who was pressed tightly against his chest. His other hand slowly made it's way under his pillow where is high powered hand gun was stowed.

The assassin was sure there was only one intruder. And, by the sounds of it, he was heavy, and wasn't smart. If his eyes were open, he would have rolled them. The intruder either didn't care that he was making noise, or he or she wasn't a professional.

Vegeta gently and slowly let go of Bulma and stealthily lifted off the bed and exited the bedroom, leaving the blue haired woman, none the wiser. He glided down the hall silently, pointing his gun ahead of him. As he peaked around the corner and into the kitchen, he saw a silhouette of a man at the dining room table...eating?

"Ah, Vegeta. Been a long time."

Vegeta growled as he lowered his weapon, but kept his finger on the trigger. A dim light over the table switched on, revealing the intruder. At the site of the small fat man, Vegeta all but spat on the floor.

Guldo. He hated this guy... maybe a little more so than the other two dumb fucks he killed back in West City. He always had a smug smile on his face, and was arrogant as fuck. And what really confused Vegeta was how he was on the most 'elite' assassin groups. He was slovenly and wasn't very good in hand to hand combat.

"Mhmf." Guldo mumbled as he stuffed the leftover dinner Bulma had put in the fridge for later. "Did the Briefs girl make this? It's damned good."

Vegeta narrowed his eyes on him and sat down across from the fat man. His hand tightened over the handle of his gun contemplating shooting him for eating his left over dinner... He was looking forward to eating that pasta dish...

Guldo swallowed his mouthful and smirked at Vegeta. "I was going to kill you in your sleep, but, where's the fun in that?"

"HA! Now that's funny. You, of all people, could not pull off such a feat. In fact, the mere fact that Frieza sent you to kill me is an insult." He chuckled as the fat assassin frowned at him. "How did you find me, Guldo?"

His smug smirk spread across his lips as he wiped his mouth with the back of his sleeve. "I have my ways. Although, I have to admit, it took me longer to find this place than I anticipated." He shrugged and pulled out a large hand gun.

Vegeta stayed stoic. His left eyebrow twitched ever so slightly at the sight of the weapon. Ah, yes this was why he was on the Ginyu force. Guldo was an excellent shot. He could hit a fly from 100 yards away.

"Why don't ya just put that pesky gun down, Vegeta." He cocked the gun, and pointed it directly at Vegeta's head.

He did as he was told and placed his gun on the table top and then leaned back in his seat, not giving Guldo the satisfaction of showing any kind of uneasiness.

"That-a boy." Guldo said mockingly. "Now, Vegeta Ouji, where'd you put that pretty little blue haired thing?"

"There's no need to bring her into this."

"Oh but there is! She's the very reason why I'm here... you're just a bonus!" He stood up and brushed crumbs off of his stained shirt. "Tell ya what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna off your woman...maybe make her suffer a little and make you watch and then, when I'm done with her, I'm going to torture you to death. It's the least I could do to avenge my fallen brothers." He cocked his head to the side, his smug look turning thoughtful. "Although, I must say, death by ketchup bottle was pretty damned comical."

Vegeta crossed his arms over his chest and smirked at the memory of driving the thick condiment glass into the asshole's chest. "Well, that sounds all well and good, but I'm afraid I just can't let you do any of it."

"Is that so? Well, that's funny, seeing as you're in no position to stop me, that is unless you have another gun stuffed down your shorts... now, be a good boy and let's get your girlfriend. C'mon buddy! It'll be fun!"

Vegeta stood slowly from his chair, so that he and Guldo were both standing across from each other. "You will have to go through me to get to her, you fat little fuck."

Guldo's face twisted into hate hateful sneer, his grip on his gun tightened, it still pointed right at Vegeta's head.

"See this?" Guldo pulled out some sort of a remote from his pocket. He smirked when he saw Vegeta flinch. "I've managed to plant a few C4 bricks around this place, all while you were fucking your blue haired girlfriend." Guldo smirked. "With one press of this here button, I'll blow the both of you to hell, now, let's go wake your bitch girlfriend up."

Vegeta's sneered at Guldo. "Fuck. You."

"Fine, you wanna play it that way..."

He watched as Guldo's finger started to squeeze the trigger of his gun, and that's when he made his move. With all his might, Vegeta shoved the kitchen table forward, making it collide with Guldo. It hit him with such force, that he was sent through the kitchen window.

Not bothering to see where he landed, Vegeta twisted around and dove into the connecting room, narrowly missing the flying bullets that were being sprayed from a very pissed off Guldo's gun. He crawled as fast as he could into the hallway and then stood up again and ran into the bedroom.

Bulma was in the process of jumping out of bed when he entered. He dove onto the bed and grabbed her, dragging her off onto the floor and shielded her with his body on the hard wood floor as the next barrage of bullets came from outside.

Vegeta frantically searched for his backpack that was under the bed. He found it, ripped it open, and grabbed both guns he had stowed in there.

"You fucking cock sucker!" Guldo screamed from outside as he squeezed off a few more rounds blindly into the room.

Bulma was too confused to form words. One minute, she was sleeping peacefully and the next she's woken from what sounded like gun shots, and not seconds later, her boyfriend dives into the room and drags her onto the cold ass floor.

"Oh Ve-geeeeetaaah!" Guldo called out mockingly. "Hiding won't help you here... I'll tell you what, I'll give you sixty seconds to decide. Either you come out, you're little girlfriend too, hands up or I'll blow this fucking place to hell. Your choice. Your sixty seconds starts riiiiiiight...NOW!"

"What does he mean blow?" Bulma asked, wide eyed.

Vegeta was looking around frantically, trying to figure out what the hell to do.

"Vegeta?"

"Shut up, Woman." He shoved his palm onto her mouth and concentrated harder.

The assassin quickly shoved his backpack at Bulma. "Put this on, and get your shoes on."

Bulma looked at him as he had lost his mind.

"DO IT!" He roared, making her jump. But his outburst made her snap out of it and she did what she was told, and he did the same.

"Twenty seconds Vegeta."

"Hold on tight, Woman." Vegeta said, scooping her up into his arms. He took off running, leaving Bulma speechless as she was about to ask him just what in the blue hell he was planning on doing, and ran full throttle towards the picture windows.

Bulma squealed in terror as he catapulted the two of them through the window and landed roughly on the grass. Disoriented, Bulma was then yanked up again by Vegeta, shielding her from Guldo, who was running towards them, shooting.

Vegeta grunted as the familiar sensation of white hot pain filled the side of his chest, where he caught one of the fat man's bullets.

Bulma screamed as his blood sprayed across her face and caught him as he stumbled toward the ground.

"VEGETA!"

"No, go, Bulma." He grunted, pushing her off of him as he got up.

"Oh, Vegeta, seems you got a flesh wound!" Guldo said, slowly making his way towards the pair of them. "Sorry about that." He emptied the empty cartridge and loaded another full clip into his gun.

Vegeta sneered at the fat assassin and then turned to Bulma. "Woman, go through the woods. Go east, until you find a small village. Check into a hotel called The Sol Inn-"

"Put your hands up the both of you." Guldo interrupted him.

Vegeta ignored him. "If I'm not there by eight am tomorrow, go to Zurich bank and open box 55." He stood up and cocked his gun, wincing as he did. "RUN! Follow the brook!" He shoved her towards the forest. "NOW!"

He turned and charged at Guldo, firing off a barrage of bullets in the fat man's direction. The two men collided, each trying to overpower the other. Bulma stood there frozen as she watched Vegeta and the fat man, who she assumed was part of the assassin team Frieza had sent to kill the two of them, roll around the ground throwing punches at each other.

"RUN BULMA!" Vegeta screamed.

"NO!" Guldo roared and pointed his gun in Bulma's direction.

Bulma backed away and screamed. Guldo shot his gun and at the last second, Vegeta moved, taking the bullet that would have for sure hit Bulma.

"RAAAA!" He screamed and looked to Bulma. "RUN GOD DAMNIT!"

And run she did, into the thick woods that lined the cottage, following the small brook.

* * *

Bulma watched numbly as the dirty water swirled around the drain of the shower. She had a considerable amount of Vegeta's blood on her. She couldn't remember if it was from the first bullet he took or from the second one that saved her life.

She ran a hand through her long wet locks and leaned up against the tile of the shower. Lifting up her palms, she let the water through her fingers and soak her cut and bruised hands. She had sustained the injuries going through the window Vegeta sent them through and from falling a few times while running through the woods. She also had a scrape on her cheek, again from the going through the window and a few more scrapes on her arms. The water stung, but she welcomed the feeling. It helped keep her mind focused, so (as) not to fall into another body wracking sob attack like she had fallen into when she first entered the hotel room.

After a long while, she exited the shower and put on her dirty yoga pants and Vegeta's sweatshirt. She was exhausted, seeing as it was now 10:30pm, but she knew she wouldn't get any sleep. Her mind was too busy worrying about Vegeta.

'It's been two and a half hours. He should be here by now.'

Bulma rubbed her temples.

'No, I can't think that way.'

She sat on the bed, pulling her knees to her chest and rested her head on her knees. She took deep breaths trying to prevent a new waves of tears that were starting to come out.

She paused, holding her breath. A faint rattling noise came from the door.

Bulma shot off of the bed and dug into Vegeta's backpack, and pulled out a small hand gun. Her heart beat rapidly as she watched the door handle jiggle.

'Oh god! They found me!'

She gripped the gun tight and slowly made it to the door and looked out the peep hole. Whoever it was, was not visible through the lens. She put her ear up against the door and strained to see if she could hear anything.

Labored breathing and a groan sounded from the other side.

She backed away from the door.

"Bulma." A muffled voice called from the other side of the door.

Bulma stayed still, not sure if it was her imagination. "Who is it?" She yelled.

"It's Vegeta. Open up."

Bulma stayed put. "How do I know it's really you?"

She could hear a growl come from whoever it was. "Christ, Woman. Open the god-damned door!"

She smiled and ran to the door, opening it.

A battered, bloodied Vegeta stood, leaning on the door frame... frustration and anger shining in his eyes. He pushed off the door frame and hobbled his way into the hotel room.

Bulma poked her head out into the hallway, making sure nobody saw him and closed the door and locked it. When she turned, she caught a glimpse of Vegeta as he stepped into the bathroom.

She found him sitting on the toilet with a wet washcloth cleaning one of his multiple wounds.

"Here." She started the shower, making the water go as hot as it could. "I'll help you."

He gave her a sideways glance as she gently pulled him up on his feet and peeled his loose fitting work out short off. They were tattered and torn and covered in blood. She then guided him to the shower and gave him a fresh bar of soap and a washcloth.

"Clean up, and when you get out I'll dress your wounds."

He took the items from her but remained silent. The look in his eyes told her he needed some time to himself, and she obliged, exiting the bathroom.

A few moments later, a yowl of anger erupted from within the bathroom, followed by the sounds of tile being pounded unmercifully by large fists.

**SNAP! I left ya hangin'**

* * *

Beta'd by: Springandbysummerfall


	11. Chapter 11

**Hello! And Merry Christmas to you all! This is a damned short chapter, but I wanted to get this out since I let you all hanging =) I also had to channel my anger last night, since my car got broken into. UGH! I stupidly left my kids dvd players attached to the head rests, so they decided to take them for themselves... if anyone is from sacramento, CA watch out! Especially by the malls! **

**Merry Christmas, and thank you to my reviewers and my wonderful Beta for beta'ing for me on Christmas Eve!**

**Disclaimer: Still don't own it!**

* * *

He watched as Bulma sprinted into the thick of the woods and quickly whipped around just in time to catch Guldo's fist to the side of his face. The impact from the punch sent him flying to the ground, but quickly shot up to his feet when he noticed Guldo trying to catch up with Bulma, all the while shooting wildly into the woods.

"No!" Vegeta roared as he tackled him from behind, crossing his arms behind his back. Unfortunately, the gunshot to his shoulder made it hard to keep a tight hold on the wriggling fat man, and soon received another punch, this time to the side of the chest, close to his other gun shot injury.

"How valiant." Guldo laughed as he got up off of the ground. "Trying to save your bitch!"

Vegeta picked himself up off the ground. He was in pain, and it was effecting his ability to extinguish the threat to himself and Bulma. He growled at himself.

Kick the fat man's ass now, be in pain later.

He ignored the searing pain of his injuries and straightened his shoulders. "You will not touch her!" Vegeta said through gritted teeth. "Come on fatty, come at me." He gave Guldo a sly smirk and motioned for him as he spat blood filled saliva on the ground.

Guldo looked at him angrily. "How's about I shoot you instead, tough guy." He brought his gun up and pointed it at at Vegeta. "Too bad I won't be able to kill the Brief's girl in front of you. Oh well." He shrugged and squeezed the trigger.

Vegeta stood, arms crossed and an arrogant smile on his face.

Guldo growled and squeezed the trigger to his gun again, and shook it dumbly when nothing happened, again.

"You really need to learn how to count your ammo."

"RAAA!" The portly assassin screamed out in frustration, threw his gun at Vegeta, and missed.

"You ready to fight like a big boy?" Vegeta teased.

Guldo sneered at him. "I will kill you."

Vegeta crouched, readying himself for battle. "You can try."

For a short, over weight individual, Guldo moved fast. Faster than Vegeta had anticipated. He charged Vegeta and knocked him to the ground. And, he played dirty. Taking advantage of Vegeta's sluggishness from his gunshot wounds and dug a finger into the hole in his shoulder. He laughed maniacally as Vegeta howled in sheer pain.

"Not so tough now you little shit!"

With all the strength he could muster, Vegeta brought a powerful fist into Guldo's windpipe, effectively knocking him off of Vegeta. The younger of the two assassin's popped up onto his feet, wincing at the hot pain that went through his shoulder. He ignored it and hunched over the wheezing assassin and hunched down beside him. "You're not so tough with out your silly guns." He chuckled as he saw anger ignite in Guldo's eyes. "Nighty night." Vegeta stood up and kicked Guldo in the head, knocking him unconscious.

He needed to get to Bulma. But before he could go after her, there was something he needed to get before he did. Vegeta quickly dashed back through the broken window he had sent himself and Bulma through and grabbed his suitcase. He ripped it open, frantically throwing clothes about until he found what he was looking for. He grabbed the blue velvet jewelry box and stuffed it in his shorts pocket. He then grabbed a random shirt and shoes and put them on.

As he started to walk back towards the broken window, a small beeping caught his attention.

A very familiar beep, one that told him he only had a few seconds to get the hell out of the house or he'd be barbecue.

For the second time that evening, he catapulted himself out of the window of the bedroom, with only a few seconds to spare. As he hit the hard ground the small house exploded, sending a fire ball up into the night sky and showering him with debris.

The familiar high pitch squeal sounded in his ear as the feeling of shell shock over came him. Disoriented, he stumbled to his feet, trying to blink away his fuzzy and twisted vision. He was concussed, and found it a chore to focus.

From not so far away, he could hear Guldo laughing gleefully.

Vegeta stood, demanding his legs hold him up. This fucker needed to die. Not only did he shoot him, twice... he shot at his girlfriend, blew up his vacation house and ate his leftover's. He looked around for something, anything that would cause bodily harm to his foe. A four by four that was on fire lay just a few feet away from the frazzled assassin. He stumbled to it and picked it up and followed the sounds of the fat man's laughter.

Where the front of the home used be, Guldo stood, holding his large belly as he let out another wave of laughter. "Burn baby! BURN!" He roared and reached into his pocket.

"Boss?" He said, stifling a chuckle. "It's done." There was a pause. "Blew the fucker up. The only thing left to do now is find the woman and kill her. She went into the woods, she couldnt've gotten far." Guldo nodded his head as he listened to the other person on the phone. "Don't worry, I'll get it done." He clicked his phone off and smiled at the smoldering pile of what used to be Vegeta Ouji's cottage.

He spat towards the burning home and lit a victory cigarette. "Finally killed you, you son of a bitch."

"Surprise!"

Guldo turned, and was met with a flaming four by four to the face. He fell to the ground and was met by the rage filled eyes of Vegeta.

The last thing Guldo saw was Vegeta's devil-like smile and fire and wood coming down towards his head in lightning speed.

He hit and hit and hit until Guldo was a heap of unrecognizable flesh. With one final blow to his head, Vegeta fell backwards on his butt, dizzy from beating the third member of the Ginyu F?orce to death.

Vegeta sat that there until his breathing went back to normal, watching the roaring fire. He needed to get up and moving. He had considerable blood loss and his injuries would surely make the trek into town a long and hard one.

* * *

He managed to get to the hotel he had told Bulma to go to within two hours. He'd periodically stop, involuntarily, when his legs gave out on him. But he picked himself up again and carried on towards the small village, cursing at himself at the top of his lungs in every language he knew.

It took all he had in him not to kill the boy behind the desk. He kept insisting that he call an ambulance for him. But after gruffly telling him no, more than once, the boy told him what room his 'wife' was in and he limped towards the room. The hallways were empty, much to his relief. That was all he needed, a stupid tourist running into his bloody and broken self, asking if he was OK.

He was doubly relieved to see Bulma's worried face after she finally opened the door. But, relieved or no, he needed to clean his wounds and get the bullets out of him before they got infected. Too tired to tell her to go away, he let Bulma run him a shower and accepted the fresh bar of soap and washcloth and was thankful to hear her leave the small room.

The beaten assassin stood in the shower, his face calm, eyes closed. The hot water felt good on his wary body.

The two of them narrowly escaped with their lives. He should have taken more precaution... he shouldn't have gotten his ass handed to him, especially by, of all people, Guldo.

His eyes flew open and promptly sent his fists into the tile, again and again.

Within seconds, he felt loads better. He was still angry, but he was no longer seeing red. After flicking the shards of tile out of his knuckles, he quickly washed off and got out, careful not step on broken tile.

* * *

Bulma stood frozen in the middle of the hotel room. Vegeta's hissy fit only lasted for a minute or so, and when it stopped, she had to stop herself from going back in there. Bulma had witnessed many different stages of 'Pissed-off-Vegeta'. And it seemed nothing had changed. He needed to blow of steam before he would return to his normal self. If you tried to reason with him before he through a fit, you would either get a punch in the face or would be curled up in a ball in the corner of the room, recovering from a harsh tongue lashing.

When the bathroom door finally did open, Vegeta emerged less bloody, but very much bruised and cut up... not to mention, sporting two more bullet holes in his body to add to his collection.

"Get the med kit out of the backpack." He ordered and sat down on the bed. "You'll have to get both bullets out of me."

"Me?" Bulma squeaked. "Why me?"

Vegeta looked at her, trying very hard to keep his frustrations in check. "Do you see anybody else here able to do it?" He growled.

Bulma huffed. "You don't have to be rude about it." She mumbled and got the med kit out of the bag.

Vegeta was too tired to respond. He laid down and waited for her to start. "Do you know what to do?"

"I think so?" She said as she took out some rubbing alcohol, cotton swabs, a pair of long nosed tweezers and other various things she thought she needed. "I watched Eighteen do it the last time you got shot... which evidently happens a lot."

"It comes with the job." He grumbled.

"I guess so." Bulma mumbled as she poured the alcohol on both wounds and went to work. The first bullet was thankfully a through and through so there was no retrieval necessary. The other on his shoulder proved to be difficult, but after only five attempts, and four threats on her life from the surly assassin, Bulma was able to get the bullet out of his shoulder. She made quick work of dressing both injuries and was surprised that Vegeta fell asleep shortly after she taped him up.

* * *

She was the first to wake, and wasn't surprised to see that Vegeta was still fast asleep. Bulma got out of bed and closed the thick curtains to keep the sun out so Vegeta would sleep longer.

She then went into the bathroom and washed her face and took stock on what little belongings she now had. A very dirty pair of yoga pants, a not so wearable shirt and a men's hoodie... and Vegeta had less. What he came in was covered in blood.

She tapped her finger on her chin... if memory serves, she remembered seeing a small gift shop in the lobby of the hotel. She tossed her hair up into a high pony tail and slipped her shoes on and headed down to the lobby with a few American dollars from Vegeta's backpack.

It was slim pickings for sure.

For herself, she found a long tube top dress. It wasn't what she wanted, but beggars can't be choosers. To top off her new ensemble, she grabbed a floppy sun hat and a pair of large sunglasses, the kind that celebrities wore.

As for Vegeta... well, the pickings were even slimmer.

It was a choice between a loud hawaiian shirt or a pink button down shirt. And seeing as it would be hilarious to see her bad ass assassin boyfriend in a hawaiian shirt... she picked the lesser of the two evils and picked the pink button shirt. She grabbed a pair of jeans to complete his new look.

When she got back to the room, Vegeta was up and yelling into his phone. He paid her no heed as he continued to yell at, who she assumed was Eighteen.

"I want to know how the FUCK that fat ass found us so quickly. Got it!" He paused as he listened. "Good, now call your contact and get us the fuck out of here." He hung up and tossed his phone on the bed. "Where have you been?" He growled, turning to look at her.

"I was getting us some wearable clothing since ours is covered in blood, and coffee." She smiled and handed him a large paper cup.

He grunted and took a sip of coffee. He watched as Bulma went to the bed and unloaded his backpack, placing her purchases on the bed.

"Should you be up and acting a fool in your condition?" She frowned as she looked at his dressings. They needed to be changed, blood had seeped through both gauze patches.

"Acting a fool?" He repeated.

"Yes, acting a fool. You're all worked up, stalking around like a starving panther and yelling at poor Eighteen."

His left eye started to twitch and a headache was starting to form. "Well," he started calmly. "I'm 'acting a fool' and 'yelling at poor Eighteen' because somehow that fat fuck found me, even though we were in a location that nobody knows about... I also got shot up and now look like a piece of swiss cheese, not to mention he tried to kill my god damned girlfriend and blew my fucking vacation home up. So, Bulma, I think I have a great fucking reason to 'ACT A FOOL'!"

Bulma stood in from on him with her arms crossed, giving him a look of boredom. "Feel better?"

"Quite."

"Good, here." She handed him his new clothes, and nearly got a mouthful of hot coffee spat in her face.

Vegeta quickly swallowed his coffee. "What the fuck is this?" He held up the pink shirt.

Bulma looked at it and nearly spat out her coffee. She hadn't noticed it had lettering on the back of it.

The back the shirt proudly bore the words: BAD MAN

She couldn't form words as the giggles started in.

"Seriously, you think I'm going to wear this?"

Bulma nodded and continued to laugh.

"I'm not wearing this!"

"It was that or a Hawaiian shirt." She responded through her laughter.

Vegeta yanked the jeans from the bed and stomped off to the bathroom and slammed the door.

Bulma expected Vegeta to be out by the time she was done getting dressed, but the door to the bathroom remained closed.

"Vegeta? You ok in there?"

There was silence.

"Do you need help buttoning that awesome pink shirt of yours?"

She pressed her ear up to the door and heard him mumble angrily. "I'm going to kill you, I swear it." He said finally.

"Oh come now, Vegeta. It can't be that bad." She jerked back as the door opened. Vegeta stood, arms crossed and staring bloody murder at the blue haired woman in front of him.

Bulma looked him up and down. The jeans fit well... as did the shirt. She couldn't help but smile and tried to hide it behind her hand. "You look great." Her statement was strained, making Vegeta growl at her and curse at her.

"C'mon Bad Man, let's get some breakfast."

* * *

Beta'd by Springandbysummerfall


	12. Chapter 12

**Good day**!** Its been a while, ya?**

**If you haven't already, join mine and Mallie_3's Bulma and Vegeta Community! We've got some really awesome peeps to join *cough* Tempestt *cough*Catgirl26 …eherm among other equally awesome and legendary peeps. =) And Our next podcast we'll have Niteryde on! Our community page and podcast channel links are on my profile page. We'd love to get more people on!**

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* * *

Bulma adjusted her floppy sun hat so she could view the largely pissed off assassin who was sitting directly across from her and smiled as he stuffed yet another Danish in his mouth.

Currently they were sitting outside at a street side café, drinking coffee and eating pastries, waiting for Eighteen's contact to pick them up. Bulma was enjoying herself, seeing as they weren't running for their lives for once. Vegeta explained to her that before he killed the fat assassin, Guldo had called Frieza to let him know that he had killed Vegeta and was en route to kill Bulma. And since he was now dead, they didn't have to worry about being hunted… for now.

Vegeta on the other hand was still epically pissed about the pink shirt he was wearing, and it didn't help when he received a couple suggestive smiles and nods from a few men that passed by. She actually had to stop him not once but twice from reaching to his hip and drawing his firearm.

"We're going clothes shopping right when we get to Paris." He mumbled bitterly as he chugged his coffee.

"Shopping…in Paris?" Bulma beamed.

Vegeta grunted. "All of our clothes have been burned, and I refuse to wear this shirt for the next few weeks."

She nodded in concurrence. Although the long tube top dress she was wearing was very comfortable, she too didn't want to live in the thing for however long they'd be on the run. Plus, who was she to deny spending Vegeta's money in Paris?

They ate and drank in silence, watching the people walk about the town. Bulma was engrossed with the scene that was unfolding just a couple of tables away from she and Vegeta. A man and a woman were speaking in low but harsh whispers… they were speaking German, but it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that they were having issues. The woman was trying hard not to yell at the poor guy. Bulma for her own amusement assumed he was cheating on her, and was trying desperately to quiet his other half down. Things were getting quite interesting as their conversation started to heat up. Bulma watched as the woman stood up, yelled something and tossed a full glass of water in the guy's face. She was so caught up with the scene that she hadn't noticed the tall, almost lanky figure that was now standing at she and Vegeta's table.

"Ouji." His monotone voice greeted.

Bulma jumped and turned to meet the icy blue eyed gaze of a rather good looking man. He had long, shiny black hair and his facial features were very familiar to her. He was dressed casually in a pair of jeans and a black t-shirt and carried himself in a way that told her he was a dangerous man.

"Bout time you showed up." Vegeta growled as he stood up, tossed some money on the table and looked at Bulma impatiently. "Well, woman, what are you waiting for? A written invitation? Let's go!"

Bulma stood up and glared at Vegeta, but said nothing. She knew he was pissy and didn't frankly didn't have the energy to snap back at him. She was running on little sleep, and the past few days were taking a toll on her. She stood up and gathered his black backpack and smiled at the man, who nodded back at her, and then led them to a jet black BMW that was parked right next to the little cafe. Seeing as Vegeta had stomped to the car and got in on the front passenger side door, the man opened the back passenger door to the car for Bulma. Again, she didn't say anything about Vegeta's rude behavior, and slid into her seat. She watched as the man got into the car, started it up and drove off.

The interior of the car was completely silent. Vegeta was glaring out the passenger side window and the driver seemed to be content with the silence… As for Bulma, it was deafening.

"So," she said after a few minutes. "Who are you?"

The man gazed up and looked at her through the rear view mirror, his icy blue eyes seemed to stare right through her, making her feel uncomfortable.

"My name is Seventeen." He drawled.

Bulma quirked up an eyebrow, studying his eyes. "You look familiar."

He smirked slightly and then looked at the road. "My sister is Eighteen. I believe you met."

"Well that makes sense." She said semi surprised. Now that he mentioned it, they were exactly alike. The less than enthused attitude and the creepy eyes they shared were uncanny. Except for the different hair color, they were very much the same.

"So, this profession must run in the family."

Seventeen chuckled. "Yes it does."

Bulma smiled and when he didn't say anything further, she looked out the window and watched the scenery whiz by. It was clear that both men in the front of the car were not up for conversation. Eventually the silence in the car and the muted sounds of the environment lulled her to sleep, where she lost herself in dreams filled with faceless men chasing after her…

* * *

Vegeta peered back into the backseat. Bulma was asleep. That didn't take too long. They were on the road for less than an hour and she was out like a light… although it didn't surprise him. The two of them had been running around like crazy people with little to no sleep. The only real sleep they got was the night they got to his cottage…but they didn't really do much sleeping…and last night, although it was only for a few hours, four at the most.

He turned back around and tore open the manila envelope that Seventeen had handed to him when they got in the car. He flipped through the pages until he found what he was looking for.

"This is for sure?" He growled.

Seventeen gave him a sideways glance and then looked down to the sheet of paper Vegeta was gripping. "Yes. I gathered the intel myself. Everything you need for it is in there. "

The assassin nodded his head and then scanned the rest of the page.

"The other supplies you requested are under the seat as well."

Vegeta paused his scanning and reached under the seat, and grabbed a small paper bag. "Good." He grunted and picked up the papers he was reading.

"I have taken it upon myself and got more weapons for you. Eighteen sent me a list of your preferences. I have brought them to your safe house."

Vegeta gave him a grunt of appreciation and continued reading.

"Do you want to ditch the female?" Seventeen asked. "This mission looks messy, she'll weigh you down."

"No," Vegeta halfway hollered. He looked behind him to see if his outburst had awoken Bulma, and breathed a sigh a relief when she stayed asleep. "She stays with me."

"Whatever you say." Seventeen drawled.

And that was that. The two men remained silent. It was one thing he really liked about the twins, Seventeen and Eighteen. They weren't chatty, and he appreciated the fact that they didn't like stupid chatter and small talk. It's why he allowed them to work with him.

He spent the six hour drive to Paris reading over the recon Seventeen had so graciously done for him and contemplated things…like, how he was going to kill that fucker Frieza and the two remaining men on the Ginyu Force. His thoughts then turned to what would happen IF he succeeded. What then? Go off into the sunset, Bulma and he hand and hand? Buy a tract home, shoot out a couple of brats and live a 'normal' life? Frankly, it made him anxious thinking of a domestic life. He knew he wanted something other than the life he had been living since he ran off on Prom night… but it would take some getting used to. He figured he would need to be eased into his new life, and chose not to think about just how difficult it would be for him when and if the time came…

He unconsciously slid his hand in his pocket and gripped the blue velvet box his mother had left him. Even now, now that he and Bulma had rekindled what they had lost ten years ago, he still wasn't sure he could offer her a normal life, and unfortunately, he would be constantly in someone's crosshairs until the day he died. And if his life was in danger, that meant his significant other would be in danger by default.

* * *

Cap sat on the edge of his couch, a cold beer in his hand, his eyes glued to his flat screen tv. Currently, the West City Tornadoes were leading by one run against the Royal City Chiefs. It was the bottom of the ninth and bases were loaded and just when the pitch was released his phone rang.

He turned and growled at the receiver and contemplated not answering, but remembered that his good friend was on the run and it may be him asking for help.

"Hmph…fat chance." He murmured and took a large gulp of beer, and slammed the glass bottle down onto the side table next to his couch and got up. The very thought of Vegeta calling to ask for help was laughable, but then again, the boy had surprised him a few times when he was saw him.

He grabbed the phone from the book case.

"This had better be good, the games on." He answered angrily.

"It's a matter of national security Captain… I believe the West City Tornadoes can wait."

Cap' left eye twitched at the sound of the familiar voice and turned the tv off with the remote. He sighed heavily and rubbed his twitching eye. "I guess they can."

"Where is your old partner, Captain?"

"I haven't seen him." Cap' replied hotily. "I'm not his keeper."

The person on the other end chuckled dryly. "I highly doubt that Captain."

"I tell ya what," Cap said. "How about I give ya jingle if he pops up, now if you'll excuse me, I have some baseball to watch." He hung up the phone before the other person could interject. He turned the ringer off of the phone and headed back to the couch… and just as he sat back down, the door bell rang.

"GOD DAMNIT!" He roared and shot back up onto his feet and angrily stomped to the front door, and practically ripped the door open.

The indifferent look of Special Agent Piccolo stared back at him and said nothing as he stepped into Cap's house uninvited.

"I wasn't finished with our conversation, Captain." He stated and went into the kitchen and sat down at the little kitchen table, patiently waiting for the large man to do the same.

"And I told you, I'd tell you if he turns up, now get the fuck out of my kitchen."

Piccolo just stared back at him. Cap absently imagined he and Vegeta in an indifferent/intimidating staring contest and wondered who'd crack first. The two of them were good at it.

"Cut the bullshit Captain. I know he was here. His beloved car is parked in your barn, he was here, and I want to know where he and Bulma Briefs are."

Cap' grabbed another beer out of the fridge, not bothering to get one for his unwanted guest and sat down at the table. "Why do you want him and the girl so bad. You should just let them live in peace."

Piccolo's eyes narrowed at Cap'. "I highly doubt they are on an innocent honeymoon, don't play stupid Captain. You know damn well Vegeta and the girl are wanted… by many people, and the CIA would like to get to them first, before there are any more fatalities."

Cap' remained stubbornly silent and sipped his beer.

Piccolo eyed Cap, and knew the old man wasn't going to crack. "As of right now, he has gone rogue and you know how we view rogue's Captain. If any one of our operatives catch him, they will shoot on site."Piccolo stood up and peered down at Cap. "If by chance he does 'pop up' you tell him to keep his head down…I'll let myself out."

Cap watched from his kitchen window as Piccolo got back into his vehicle and when his car was out of site, he dialed a number.

"Eighteen? I need you to deliver a message..."

* * *

"Are you kidding me right now?" Bulma's mouth was agape in shocked surprise as she surveyed Vegeta's Paris safe house.

Vegeta rolled his eyes and tossed his back pack onto the mahogany coffee table, leaving Bulma to slobber all over the view the living room had to offer to talk to Seventeen.

Bulma gravitated towards the windows that had a spectacular view of Paris. She knew now why it was the city of lights. She turned back towards the apartment that was their safe house and shook her head. A safe house in her mind was a shack in the middle of nowhere, but Vegeta had proved her wrong, not once, but three times with his secret hideouts. Each place he had taken her, sans Cap's place, was luxurious and was anything but a shack in the middle of nowhere. Although this place was quite smaller than the other places Vegeta had taken her, Bulma didn't mind.

She sat down and waited for Vegeta. She could still hear his deep, muffled voice from behind the entry door… he sounded angry as he spoke to Seventeen. She strained her ears to see if she could hear the conversation, but was unsuccessful. Not even Seventeen's monotone responses gave any clues away as to why Vegeta sounded agitated…

After a few moments Vegeta reentered, Seventeen presumably gone. He was holding a paper bag and he looked at her warily.

"Are we going shopping now?"

"No." He stated gruffly. "We need to take care of something first before we go out in public." He held out the paper bag.

Bulma stood up from the couch and took the bag out of his hand and peeked inside. She rose an eye brow at the contents. "Bleach and purple hair dye?"

He narrowed his eyes at her, took a full step back from her and lifted both hands up in a defensive manner. "We have to dye our hair."

"NO!"

Vegeta rolled his eyes at her, already knowing she would have had that reaction.

"I'm not dying my beautiful blue hair purple!"

He groaned and swiped the bag away from her. "What are you complaining about? I have to bleach mine! Now quit your bitching, get in the bathroom and dye your damned hair."

Bulma crossed her arms, stood stick straight and pointed her nose in the air. He knew how she felt about her hair. It was her pride and joy. She had been growing it out since grade school, and had vowed to never die it…EVER!

"There is no way in hell that you are going to get me to dye my hair, Vegeta."

"Yours and my wig burned with everything. You will dye your hair. I'm not getting shot at by some CIA agent because you refuse to dye your hair. Now," he stepped forward and stared menacingly down at her, gritting his teeth when she looked up at him defiantly. "we can do this the easy way, or the hard way. Either you get in the bathroom this instant and dye your hair or I will hog tie you and do it myself."

They stared at each other for a few moments, daring one another to defy the other. But in the end, Vegeta won. Bulma knew damn well he would chase her down, hog tie her and dye her hair, and he'd probably ruin her hair in the process.

She swiped the bag from his grasp and marched into the bathroom, glaring at him the whole way while he smiled at her annoyingly.

She turned her head right and then left. The purple that Seventeen had picked out for her was actually not that bad. It was a soft color and it surprisingly complimented her blue eyes. But, she still was pissed that she had to dye her hair. She knew it wasn't fair to be angry with Vegeta… he was in the same boat. She fluffed her hair one last time and went in search for Vegeta, who she assumed had taken the other bathroom to bleach his hair.

Bulma made her way out of the bathroom and into the living room, where a newly blonde Vegeta sat on the ground, surrounded by a mass amount of weaponry. He held a shot gun and some sort of pipe cleaner and was shoving it down one of the barrels. He was gloriously shirtless, the pink shirt carelessly strewn across the couch he was leaning up against.

Without looking up he grabbed another cleaning instrument and said, "Are you done being pissy?"

She sat down across from him, and picked up a small cartridge of ammunition. "Maybe."

He looked at her and gave her a not so amused glare and then turned his attention back to his cleaning.

She took the opportunity to study his new do. His newly bleached looked better than the wig he had worn just a few short days ago. Although she preferred him with his natural color hair of jet black, the blonde didn't take away his intimidating stature. In fact, she thought it magnified it…

"You think you have enough weapons?" She looked around at the collection, shaking her head. She counted six hand guns, three shot guns, a couple of large oozie's and assault rifles, over twenty hand grenades, a few blades, a freaking bazooka, and some other things that looked dangerous but she wasn't completely sure what they were.

Vegeta put the shotgun down and wiped his hands on a small rag. "No." He stated bluntly .

She nodded her head in fake agreement. "Yeah, I mean we still have some room napalm and a few rocket launchers.

"I've got napalm." He deadpanned.

Her jaw dropped open. "Well, of course you do."

"Let's go. I need to get clothes, I refuse to wear this pink atrocity any longer than I have to." He snatched the shirt from the couch and gave it a look of pure disdain before he put it back on.

Bulma smiled and giddily followed him out of the apartment…

And shop they did. Vegeta even, begrudgingly, let her go into a handful of the designer boutiques, but refused to buy her anything from them. He stated it was ludicrous to pay over a $1000 for a damned hand bag, especially when the things he had bought her previously exploded.

They both managed to get a few outfits for everyday wear, and to Bulma's delight, a tuxedo for Vegeta and a beautiful gown for Bulma. When she asked Vegeta why they were buying such fancy clothing, he replied 'recon' but didn't elaborate. She didn't pry either. She figured he'd tell her eventually, since she was obviously part of the plan.

By the time they got back to the apartment, Bulma was exhausted, and she fell asleep instantly, leaving Vegeta awake to go through the generous weapons arsenal Seventeen left him.

* * *

Special Agent Piccolo stood patiently, staring at the wall of security screens. His eyes shifting to each one, searching.

"Fast forward." He ordered.

The airport security officer nodded and did what he was told.

"Stop."

He stepped up to the bottom screen on the wall, narrowing his eyes on a couple that walked side by side down terminal C in the international gates of the airport. As the couple's faces became more clear on the screen Piccolo ordered the officer to pause.

He turned around to face the security officer. "I need to know where these two flew to, now."

The security officer nodded and went to work, typing furiously.

Piccolo turned back to the screen and smirked at the blonde man's form. If it weren't for the woman with him, who was acting nervous, constantly looking behind her as if somebody was following her, he wouldn't have been able to pick them out of the crowd.

"Gotcha, Ouji."

* * *

beta'd by Springandbysummerfall


End file.
